Akers Packaging (CONT’D FROM PAGE 1 )
names of those companies because their customers loved doing business with them,” says Akey. “It’s very difficult to grow organically in the corrugated industry, which is why we decided a long time ago that if we wanted to grow the business, we would grow through acquisition.” Better Or Cheaper Akey cites Michael Porter, the Harvard Business Pro- fessor on Strategy, who says if you’re going to win busi- ness, you have to be either better or cheaper. You have to decide which boat you want to be in. “A lot of companies in the box business go cheaper,” says Akey. “We don’t do that. It’s just not sustainable. We want to be better.” For Akey, being better means being more educated. He graduated from Hillsdale College, a small liberal arts school in Michigan, before beginning work in the family’s plants, first in sales, then working his way through the rest of the company. “My other big education piece was work- ing for my grandfather and with my uncles,” he says. “My grandfather had a different way of running a box business. It’s in our core and literally, it’s in our family’s DNA and we haven’t lost his knowledge because my grandfather made a point of seeing that his knowledge was transferred to the next generations.” Twenty years ago, when Akey was 30, one of Akers Packaging’s vendors introduced him to a business group called the Young President’s Organization (YPO). “Being part of YPO for the last 20 years has helped our company CONTINUED ON PAGE 32
Marilyn, married Michael Akey, thus uniting one of the “first families” of the modern independent corrugated industry. As president of Akers Packaging Service Group, Akey and his uncles Bill Akers (CEO) and Jim Akers (Chairman) have grown their grandfather’s once fledgling operation into one of the largest family-owned independent corrugated companies in the Midwest, with 13 facilities spanning the
BCN(US)202109(o)(出血5mm).pdf 1 2021/9/7 下午 03:50:46 “We’ve been fortunate to have acquired several great companies with great management. We’ve even kept the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Akey’s cousin, Andrew Akers, is the compa- ny’s Managing Director. Company founder, William C. Akers, and Akers Packaging’s first box plant in Middletown, Ohio.
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April 4, 2022
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