FTA Member Bemis Reflects on Its 159 Year History
In January’s FLEXO Magazine, printers and researchers sounded off on what they saw as a positive and bright future for flexible packaging. More printers are adding the format to their offerings, brands are expanding into or moving more products over to it, and consumers find more reasons to like it. It should come as no surprise that predicted growth rates for flexible packaging are greater than 5 percent. FTA member Bemis has been established in the flexible packaging business for a few years—it started in 1858 manufacturing bags and now employs some 17,000 individuals around the world.
Here, executives give some detail into its operations, how graphics quality and standards play a vital role in satisfying customers, and how it continues to impress brand owners with advancements made at its Bemis Innovation Center.
Bemis’ Company Background
FLEXO Magazine: Talk about how Bemis got started.
Bemis Executives: We began when 25 year old Judson Moss Bemis founded a bag manufacturing business in 1858. Bemis has gone from producing cotton and burlap bags for millers along the Mississippi River to now creating transformational flexible and rigid packaging for a variety of food, beverage, medical and consumer markets. Today, Bemis has more than 17,000 employees worldwide.
FLEXO: Where are Bemis’ primary markets? What are its primary markets?
Bemis: We are a supplier of flexible and rigid packaging for food and consumer products and medical products worldwide. We manufacture packaging for everything from meat, dairy and sauces to beverages, household products and pet food. We package products for bulk, portion control, snacking, one time use, multi use and more.
FLEXO: Having facilities in a dozen countries, what kind of regional differences between packaging trends or CPC demands do you observe?
Bemis: Packaging trends around the world vary when it comes to what resonates with consumers and in which markets our customers have opportunities for growth. Market and consumer insights are a major influencer for us as we create new packaging with our customers.
Bemis on Quality
FLEXO: Talk about graphics quality at Bemis—its importance, challenges it presents, ways the company ensures high quality, prepress capabilities, etc.
Bemis: Quality within our graphics teams is a primary focus, second only to safety. Bemis Graphics invests significant time and resources to effective process and quality control. Our focus on continuous improvement ensures thorough training, frequent process reviews and in depth evaluation/correction on process gaps. Automated checkpoints within the prepress process ensure consistent, quality output. Automated quality inspection tools are integrated into the workflow to further ensure any error is caught prior to going to press. Bemis Graphics reviews all of the files that print in Bemis pressrooms, whether they are internally separated or supplied from other prepress partners.
The quality program within Bemis Graphics is integrated into our culture. Subject matter expert teams work on analysis and corrective actions. These teams own process improvement, communication and training to the broader team. This has created a culture of accountability from an individual and team perspective.
Each year, quality goals are elevated to maintain world class quality within the graphics team.
FLEXO: Is standardization a focus at the company? Do you deploy the Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications & Tolerances (FIRST) methodology?
Bemis: Standardization is a primary focus at Bemis, to ensure our initiatives are met and our customers receive the quality product they expect from us. Therefore, we do employ FIRST methodology in our everyday process.
When FIRST was initially presented as a set of guidelines for the flexographic industry, not many prepress vendors followed them. There were many individualized secret recipes that were not easily scaled for the growth of large flexo printers like Bemis. Through years of applying FIRST methodology internally and continuously speaking this language with prepress vendors, we now find FIRST has become the go to tool to help communicate a set of industry standards. Everyone is on the same page and it ensures consistent print materials from prepress vendors, such as through proof verifications. It gives our pressrooms confidence to “hit the numbers” and simply match the customer approved proof.
FLEXO: What is the Bemis Innovation Center? What is it doing to change the brand owner/printer dynamic?
Bemis: At Bemis, we believe packaging is a key enabler of growth for our customers. The world is changing and so are the needs of consumers like millennials and baby boomers. The retail space continues to fragment. Traditional grocery used to be the primary retail outlet; now there are many choices including super centers, drug stores, value stores like Dollar General, convenience and club stores, as well as ecommerce.
We leverage consumer and retailer insights to help our customers deliver packaging that grows their business, gets them to market faster and reduces their risk. At the Bemis Innovation Center, we have a comprehensive toolkit of capabilities to collaborate with our customers to help them find a better way to deliver innovative packaging from concept to commercialization that addresses the challenges they face today. Our capabilities include package design and rapid prototyping, quantitative package and shelf life testing, retail channel optimization, consumer qualitative testing and ethnography, as well as graphic design and visual identity capabilities.
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