It’s Just Good Business Sense

Hanover Packaging, with Larry and Rhonda Chatzkel, CEO and president respectively, at the helm, has been an evolving business since its founding in 1924. Corporate entities may have changed, but the company that Larry's grandfather started 85 years ago making rigid set-up boxes for Philadelphia's manufacturing base continues to be known as an innovative and customer-focused organization. "The company started in Philadelphia serving the publishing, candy, and haberdashery manufacturers based there, and as manufacturing left Philadelphia, our company changed both its industry focus, and the types of packaging it produced. As all good businesses do, we evolved to meet the needs of our market," says Rhonda.

This evolution has resulted in Hanover manufacturing the full gamut of substrates and packaging. "We started off with set-up boxes," says Larry. "From set-up boxes, we developed expertise in folding cartons and, in the early '90s, expanded to produce both rigid and folding transparent cartons. Our plastic capabilities span PVC, APET, RPET, and polypropylene. This has been particularly helpful as our customers have begun to focus on sustainability and have asked us to switch from PVC to APET and RPET."

In addition to a focus on sustainability, what makes the company distinctive, according to Rhonda, is its turnkey service. "What's unique about the company," she says, "is that when a customer comes to us, and it's got a new launch or it wants to reposition one of its brands, our designers are capable of developing packaging concepts that may include rigid boxes, folding cartons, combination or windowed cartons, transparent cartons, or facets of each."

So, for example, a company might approach Hanover to develop designs for a new product launch. "We work with our customers to understand their brand image, their retail venue, and their price point," says Rhonda. "Through a process of collaboration, we build a design that works and take them from design, through production, co-packing, and delivery. We also have the ability to achieve very distinctive graphics through our new KBA press, including specialty coatings, which can take even a standard tuck carton to a very high level. Over several months, the designs will be refined until the company's product and its new package are launched into the market.

"I think one of the reasons customers come back is that we are a turnkey and can pull these elements of a successful package together for them. They'll start with an idea, and we'll take them to execution and shipment."

Leading sustainably

While the consumer might not always know that a package is sustainable, those responsible for designing and printing it are counting on it being sustainable. Why? "Most everybody sells into Wal-Mart unless they are extraordinarily high end," says Rhonda. "We make boxes for consumer products companies across every industry and virtually all of them want to know how a new packaging design will fare with Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has a 15-point questionnaire that it submits to all its vendors that also addresses the sustainability of the package they are going to provide, along with a listing of other sustainability initiatives."

Because of Hanover's sustainability plan, its customers can answer that their packaging is provided, "by an EPA Climate Leader; that it's provided by a company that offsets its carbon and energy usage 100 percent," says Rhonda. Beyond tracing the supply chain of its substrates to ensure FSC certification, Hanover has built sustainability into its overall business plan. The company's 125,000 sq.-ft. facility operates on 100-percent renewable energy. When the facility was constructed, Larry made sure to pay for extra insulation to keep every cost and impact on the environment as low as possible. In 2007, the company became an EPA Green Power Partner, meaning that it purchases renewable energy credits for 100 percent of its electricity usage. "So, we have a 100 percent offset to our electricity usage with renewable energy," says Rhonda. "What that means is that we pay to generate renewable energy in the country that other companies can use. That led to us being designated as a Green Power Partner."

Then, she adds, the company laid out a five-year plan of what it would do in sustainability, including performing a carbon audit to determine its carbon footprint as a company, and agreeing to offset 100-percent of its carbon usage with credits as well. "That coupled with internal manufacturing facility efficiency, the addition of our new KBA Rapida press, and our use of sustainable materials in the production of our packaging, resulted in a major achievement when Hanover Packaging was recognized this year by the EPA as a climate leader—one of only 285 leaders in the U.S. To be recognized as a climate leader, it's not just a matter of what we've done historically. It means that we continue to think about ways to reduce our carbon footprint and operate with more environmental soundness," says Rhonda.

Sustainable printing

Sustainability was a big part of the equation when Hanover recently went shopping for a new press. According to Larry, there were two primary factors that led to the KBA Rapida 106: its low impact on the environment and the quality of its performance on a wide range of substrates. "We bought a hybrid press so we can move back and forth between conventional printing and UV printing," he says. "We're printing on all kinds of plastics as well as paperboard, and for cosmetics we do a lot of foil." The key to the environmental friendliness of the press is its ability to print UV. "The KBA Rapida 106 emits zero VOCs when printing UV, which was a huge plus for us," Larry states. "We know that VOC containment is very important, so we know we're not harming the environment when we're printing UV."

Press performance is also an indicator of its friendliness to the environment. "It's an 18,000-sph press. Makereadies are in a couple of hundred sheets. We have a closed loop system. When the sheet comes off the press, we scan it and look at the densities. It has a spectrophotometer, and it communicates back and forth with the press to get colors correct very quickly," he says with pride. All this equates to less waste. Rhonda adds, "Our ability to get up to press quickly and minimize waste helps our customers and helps them to be efficient."

Get the message out

Although just about everyone in the printing industry has heard about sustainability by now, not everyone has embraced it. Some don't know exactly how to use it as a tool for business. But, that's not the case for Hanover.

"We get the message out there right now one on one," says Rhonda. "Frankly, we have to publicize it more." Once Hanover publicizes its initiatives, however, the companies they pitch usually jump right on board. "Any company that we talk to about our sustainability initiatives—their eyes light up." The reason why, according to Rhonda, is that for many of those companies, there is a corporate edict that they have to operate more sustainably. "You name any Fortune 1000 company, and they usually have a sustainability initiative," she quips.

According to Rhonda, these companies have procurement employees that know they have to bring in vendors that will help them operate sustainably—at times, these purchasing people get high marks from their bosses for bringing in these types of vendors.

Plus, "it makes good business sense," says Larry. "There have been studies done [that reveal] when companies are environmentally friendly, when they do the right thing for the environment, they do better. So there's a real profit motive. Besides doing the right thing, it's good for your business. That's the reason it's happening."

Add the right people

Hanover Packaging focuses on its people, encouraging them to advance. Larry believes that's what keeps them from leaving the company. But even moreso, Hanover employees appreciate the company's commitment to training.

"Our director of operations has an interesting management philosophy in that he believes everyone in the plant needs to be cross-trained as much as possible," says Rhonda. "They'll all have expertise, but he believes cross training keeps them motivated because things never get boring. I think that's a plus, and we hear back from our employees that they like that aspect of working for Hanover."

Additionally, Larry states that the company is big on training with its manufacturers. "Before we bought this press, the pressman that was really leading the initiative, we sent him to Germany," he says. "He operated presses there and did the trial on our press. He saw the press before I did. I don't think there are many companies that send their employees to Europe."

Ya gotta believe

Philadelphia Phillies fans will reluctantly admit that famous reliever Tug McGraw uttered those words before he was a Phillie and when he played for the cursed Mets. Believing in sustainability is what has made Hanover Packaging so successful. "Sustainability is going to be the operating philosophy of any company that wants to satisfy its customers going forward," adds Rhonda. "I think it's a personal philosophy, as well as making good business sense for us. We believe in it." pP