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What many brands don't understand about today's co-packing business

This is not your father's contract packaging industry; Coregistics' CEO Eric Wilhelm explains how evolving business models help brands unlock top-line growth opportunities.

Fig. 1: The rise of three business models.
Fig. 1: The rise of three business models.
Being situated between brand owners' view of the world and the retail customers those brands serve, contract packagers are "uniquely positioned to look both up and down the entire supply chain," says Eric Wilhelm, CEO of Coregistics, based in Cranberry, NJ., adding that those same brands—manufacturers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies "have traditionally mismanaged contract packagers." 
 
The reason, he says, is that CPGs too often treat co-packers as minor vendors and not true partners, limiting their involvement strictly to packaging labor issues. The key to successful brand/co-packer relations is to treat the latter as a brand, not just a vendor and not just someone who does traditional, core packaging operations. 
 
Wilhelm offered these thoughts in a presentation at the 2012 Pack Expo in Chicago, where Kevin Hall, his chief operating officer, also spoke on the topic of late-stage customization. (This was covered separate article.)
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