Zumbiel Packaging (CONT’D FROM PAGE 1)
ground” across the Ohio River in Hebron, Kentucky, where it has risen to become one of the largest independent sup- pliers of multi-pack beverage cartons in the entire United States. It counts many major CPG companies as very satis- fied clients for decades. Responding to customers’ 20th century demands, Zumbiel Packaging began manufacturing folding cartons and set up boxes (rigid boxes), shirt boxes and confection- ery boxes and boxes for the automotive industry. The com- pany was never in the corrugated business. In the mid-1960s, Tom Zumbiel’s grandfather, Robert Zumbiel and his brother, Charles, received a call from In- ternational Paper (IP) saying they needed beverage basket carriers. A lot of them. This evolved into 12-packs and from there the business took off. Zumbiel Packaging opened a second facility in the late 1960s and set up its beverage
business, devoted solely to the manufacturing of 12-packs, 24-packs, and basket carriers. This facility was eventually Many nationally branded CPG companies have been custom- ers of Zumbiel Packaging for decades.
consolidated into the Hebron facility in 2012, creating the 500,000-square-foot super-plant where about 350 employees enjoy careers. Employees Make The Difference “Customer service is so incredibly import- ant around here and everyone in the industry knows it is very difficult to get a new customer and it’s very, very difficult to keep a customer,” says Zumbiel. “But our story is not all about finding the next market and growing again. The Zumbiel story is really about the people who work here. Our people have been em- ployees for an average of 18 years – several of them have been here between 30 and 40 years – and I think this says it all.” One of those employees is Mark Barton, VP of Manufacturing, who’s been with Zumb- iel Packaging for more than 30 years and ac- cording to Tom Zumbiel, “is the guy who takes care of all of it,” referring to the company’s massive production facility in Hebron. Former-
ly manager of Zumbiel’s sheet-fed plant in Nor- wood, Barton has been overseeing the instal- lation of machinery in Hebron since 2004 and deftly managed the lo- gistical challenges of the
Mark Barton
company’s plant consolidations in 2012. “Once we get our foot in the door with a customer and they see what we can do, we’ll usually get additional work,” says Barton. “We’re aware there’s a market price and ser- vice only goes so far, but our core competen- cy is really understanding what the customer needs then figuring out what we have to do to satisfy that need.”
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