BURTON (WJRT) — (02/15/11) — A Mid-Michigan company relied on General Motors for most of its business.
But when the automaker began to struggle in 2007, Landaal Packaging knew it had to expand its customer base.
ABC12’s Randy Conat takes a look at how the business diversified.
Landaal Packaging used to make money manufacturing corrugated boxes for GM components. Company officials realized they shouldn’t put all their economic eggs in that one basket and began to look for other ways to make a buck.
“It’s taken a lot of deep thought on what products and services make the most sense for us to diversify to,” Vice President of Sales and Marketing Bob Landaal said.
Landaal recently become the sole U.S. manufacturer of Poptech displays. The Canadian company designs in-store corrugated displays and product holders. Landaal Sales and Operations Planning Manager Terry Choate says the beauty of the product is in its simplicity. “You no longer have to spend five to seven minutes assembling it. It will come out of the box and assemble in less than 30 seconds.”
One small display actually is ready in less than two seconds.
Landaal also makes a biodegradable insulating material that one company uses to ship its steaks around the country.
Dow Chemical uses Landaal’s collapsible bottle-in-a-box as an environmentally-sensitive way to dispense its products. And the packaging company recently landed a contract to provide boxes for Muskegon-based WindTronics wind turbines.
Landaal Packaging operates two plants in Mid-Michigan. Sixty-five people work in Burton. In Bay City, Delta Container employs 35 people.
“I’m proud to say we have nobody on layoff,”
– Vice President of Operations Bernie Scibienski.
Landaal officials say it appears the worst is behind them now. To make sure that remains the case, the new company policy is to have no more than 30 percent of its customer base dependent on one company.
“It really forced us to focus on diversifying,” Landaal said.
“I think we’ve been down and at the bottom and we’re coming back real strong,” Scibienski added.
By Randy Conat
ABC12 News (WJRT)
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/local&id=7959829
(Copyright ©2011 WJRT-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission.)