McElroy Packaging (CONT’D FROM PAGE 22)
on the heels of the Apstar came an EMBA 244 Ultima three-color, flexo folder gluer with Alliance load former. To prepare for these later installations, McElroy in 2022 took
several years, but competition forced change. Steve re- called: “The industry kept evolving around us, and I said, ‘Dad, we’re competing against IP, against GP, and that line between sheet plants and everyone else is blurring.’ I fi- nally talked him into buying his first flexo [folder-gluer], and of course it was his idea once it started working all right.” By the mid-teens, seeing the need to relocate from the company’s antiquated plant in Wooster, Steve McElroy scouted the area, settling on a 30,000-square-foot facility in Orrville, Ohio, 15 miles to the northeast. In August of 2017, the company started production in the new location with 27 employees and revenue of $8.8 million. (McElroy later added an additional 72,000 square feet of ware- house space down the street.) The move to Orrville would be but the first step in what has become an eight-year equipment and facility modern- ization journey. The goal? To better serve its customers in a highly competitive market. “It started with my waking up at night thinking, ‘I’ve got some old equipment here, and I don’t know what the lifespan is.’ So we started the search.” In 2019, the company installed a Solarco Boxmat- ic 2-color boxmaker with die cut capabilities; in May of 2020, a Gazella Stitcher Gluer; in March of 2023 an Ap- star three-color, 66” x 110” rotary die-cutter with Alliance pre-feeder, AG Stacker, and JB Machine dryers and InKom- mand ink management system in the print stations. Close
on a 28,000-square-foot expansion of its plant, bringing the manufacturing floor total to 58,000 square feet. In a presentation to the Orrville City Council in September of 2021, McElroy made the case for a 10-year, 50 percent CONTINUED ON PAGE 26 McElroy Packaging installed the Apstar three-color 66x110 Rotary Die Cutter in 2023. The machine is outfitted with an Alliance Prefeeder, AG Stacker and JB Machinery dryers and InKommand print management system.
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