Sonoco Opens First of its Kind Innovation Center

HARTSVILLE, S.C.--Sonoco has opened a new Innovation Center in downtown Cincinnati, a facility dedicated to providing innovative packaging supply chain products and services for many of Procter & Gamble’s major brands. The Sonoco Innovation Center is located at 201 E. Fifth Street, Suite 1300, in the PNC Building.

“This facility is a first of its kind in the packaging industry--where a packaging supplier has placed dedicated resources directly next to a key customer to provide technology, design, brand management, supply chain, marketing and sales services,” said Charles Sullivan, Sonoco’s executive vice president for the company’s consumer group of packaging and services businesses. “We understand that innovation is important to P&G. That is why we have invested in developing a facility and providing dedicated resources in Cincinnati. Our objective is to build and strengthen our strategic partnership by providing P&G better coordination and improved speed to market.”

Sullivan said that large consumer product companies, like P&G, are asking suppliers to provide a wider range of their packaging supply chain needs, and Sonoco is uniquely positioned to provide the broadest offerings of packaging products and services in the industry on a global basis.

The 9,150-square-foot Innovation Center will house personnel representing many of Sonoco’s total solution offerings of packaging products and services. The center will house technology, marketing and account management representing the Company’s full range of packaging capabilities, including rigid paper and plastic containers, printed flexible packaging, and plastic and metal ends and closures. The facility will also house designers, structural engineers, supply chain and account managers for Sonoco CorrFlex, which provides temporary, semipermanent and permanent point-of-purchase displays and fulfillment services. In addition, Sonoco-Trident, a recognized leader in managing global brands, will open its first U.S.-based graphics brand management service in the Cincinnati area.

Coordinating Sonoco’s relationship with P&G is Brad Ross, division vice president and general manager. “In addition to providing dedicated resources to many of P&G’s brands through the opening of the Sonoco Innovation Center, we are coordinating this relationship through a seasoned senior executive,” Sullivan said. “This ‘One Sonoco Face’ approach reflects our commitment to providing a single point of contact across all Sonoco business units to expedite decision making,” he said.