TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, and welcome to this episode of ‘On the Pulse Packaging’. I’m your host, Shannon Winans, and we’re going to be talking about bags and materials for automatic baggers today. And with us, we have Dan Fedrocy from the bags and materials division who is going to discuss how the customer bag selection process goes, helping customers determine stock or custom bags. Dan, thank you for joining us today.

Hey, Shannon. Thanks for having me. Probably the biggest request I’ve gotten in my last almost three years now that I’ve been here is the difference between stock bags that are on demand and custom bags. And really the more details, the more information that I can receive now, how I’m able to leverage the time and the experience that I’ve had to say, Hey, maybe in this case, you need a stock bag, quicker turnaround, easier accessibility, or Hey, maybe in this case, because of a bunch of different factors, we need to look at a custom bag to fit the needs. So it always comes down to kind of hearing the story what’s being packaged, understanding the product, and then I can actually try to find the right pathway for them versus just, Hey, quote me this and then get them the pricing. Great.

Great. And do you want to talk about some of the solutions that PAC Machinery sells? Yeah. I mean, the reality is we have so many different stock bag options. Obviously your standard clear rollbacks that are gonna go on any machine, whether it’s one of ours or even a competitor, which we’d love to have them go on our machines, obviously.

We’ve got anything from standard clear rollbacks to vented rollbacks to suffocation warnings, to white with a clear background or a clear backing, as well as your standard coax mailers, which are extremely, hot product, especially, right now. So it’s really understanding the dynamics of any project, understanding the product that’s going in there, how they’re bagging it, and really the demands in their inventory levels to know, are these stock more valuable than maybe that exactly specific size that you had in mind? So when you’re looking at the stock rollbacks we have in inventory, it’s understanding the entire process. And a lot of times that can come down from a very quick twenty or thirty minute call. And I find found myself over the last couple years realizing, hey, I think I might have a better idea for you than them just telling me what to do and then setting up the pricing.

Do you have any customer stories that you wanna share me before you recently helped a customer? Maybe they thought they wanted one product and they actually really needed something else?

You know, we had a a customer most recently that had again, we’re talking about the difference in sizing. They called and said, I’m really looking for a six by seven with suffocation warning on that. Quote me this. Look at, you know, the different prints that we need to have on there for the specs they’re looking for. And I said, okay. How important is that length? How important is that six by seven? And right off the bat on that phone call, it was, well, this was just the size that we kinda had in mind. This is the size that we think is going to fit our product pretty well. So I initially go right to our stock bag sizing, and I say, okay. If I’m ever gonna have to choose, I always wanna have that bag a little bit longer. If your product can fit in a six by seven, well, then it’s definitely gonna fit in a six by eight.

And we have a suffocation warning stock bag, and and does this make sure it fits the requirement for languages that you’re looking for? And I don’t even think they realized that that was an option. Hey. I that makes total sense. If the product would fit in a six by seven, well, I know it’s gonna fit in a six by eight.

Or if a product fits in an eight by nine, I know it’ll fit in an eight by 10. But being able to go up there and look at that and just be able to say, say, hey. This is the choice I would like to make. The material size fit, they still wanted a clear bag. It was gonna be able to match their product and it was gonna be able to match all of their needs.

And then we can get them smaller quantities, a little bit more on demand versus, hey, you’re gonna have to buy a hundred thousand of these and then spread that out throughout the entire year. That extra length of that bag that we carry stock is small potatoes compared to all those hurdles we would have had to jump through to get them that six by seven.

So it’s really just a a a critical understanding that the more information they can give me, the more I can point them in the right direction. Maybe you can tell us about an example of your process with a customer who might have needed a custom bag. Can you share a recent story?

Yeah. I’ve got one of my biggest customers. They package some eyeglasses. Right? So we need to think about what kind of material is gonna be right for those eyeglasses. So we look at a specific film that doesn’t allow them to be scratched from the material itself. And those are things that, you know, we think of that maybe someone who’s just thinking about putting a product in a bag and shipping them out. Isn’t just gonna go into those fine details. So what’s really a pivot point based off of how much they can share with us, their understanding of the packaging process, and then us being able to deviate them into the right path again, versus just take the call, take the request to get a pricing. It’s more about understanding the bigger picture, what they’re getting out of it and really what are their pressure points?

You know, if your lead time is not an issue, let’s talk about a custom run and maybe we can even lower pricing from that because we can get larger quantities. We can talk about different release options, to be able to keep their inventory up, but also not worried about losing that inventory. But it’s really understanding what are gonna be the challenges that they’re gonna face and maybe they have to look at the five, six, seven different solutions within our process to help them, make that, that be as easy as possible. And if packagers out there are looking for maybe a new vendor, what do you want to say? Why pack machinery, besides our expertise?

What sets us apart? Yeah. I mean, I think the reality is we’re going to kind of go to the next level for you. Maybe we spend a week getting your process completely lined up versus just taking your orders, I think is a critical piece that we bring into play for anyone. All right.

Well, thanks, Dan. We appreciate you on this episode today and sharing your expertise with us. Thanks, Shannon. I very much appreciate it.