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How Korpack Wins on Speed and Smarts

Inside Korpack’s rapid rise from packaging material sales to end-of-line contract packaging for major brands.

Nick Novy, founder and CEO of Korpack.
Nick Novy, founder and CEO of Korpack.
Joseph Derr

Nick Novy is busy thinking about Korpack's next move. The company he founded in 2015 has been feeling the kind of growing pains most entrepreneurs could only dream of.

A few weeks back, Bloomingdale, Ill.-based Korpack was running out of room, with thousands of square feet of product crowding the floor. "We had forklifts doing snake patterns just to get around product and some pallets were getting hit," says Novy. "I knew if we didn't do something, quality would suffer, so we pivoted pretty quickly and found warehouse space down the street."

Today, Novy is focused on a product launch while keeping his existing brand clients happy, too. "The customer doesn't want to hear about problems. They just want to hit that button that makes things easy, and I think that's what we do for them."

An engineer's approach

Korpack's 145,000-square-foot facility, located just west of Chicago's O'Hare Airport, illustrates how a fast-growing, mid-sized contract packaging company can scale and evolve by leveraging the core strengths of its team.

"Korpack really began as a packaging materials supplier, handling design, manufacturing, and warehousing through third parties," explains Novy, who earned a degree in packaging science from Michigan State University.

Korpack’s 145,000-square-foot facility is located west of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.Korpack’s 145,000-square-foot facility is located west of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.KorpackAfter beginning his career at Uline, Novy spent 13 years at a smaller packaging distributor, rising to vice president of sales. Viewing the market from his packaging engineering lens, he saw that engineering support for CPGs was lacking.

"Very few packaging engineers go into sales, and I didn't see anyone else providing strong support on the packaging engineering side," says Novy. "So it felt like there was something missing in the marketplace."

Korpack's rapid expansion

It's been quite a journey for a company that began as a one-man operation selling boxes and tape. Within just 10 months of its founding, Korpack had outgrown its original 18,000-square-foot space.

In just a decade, the company has built its reputation on problem-solving and adapting quickly to growth. Today, with 55 full-time employees and up to 250 temporary workers on two shifts, Korpack serves brands ranging from startups to large CPGs, offering packaging materials, contract packaging and kitting services, machinery sales, and even systems integration services. The company also uses 65,000 additional square feet in Carol Stream, Ill., for warehousing.

Korpack's venture into packaging machinery distribution began in 2017, followed two years later by co-packing work. Later in 2023, contract packaging work took off with anchor customers. That same year, Korpack added line automation and systems integration services for CPGs to its portfolio.

"We're aiming to be a full-service provider for everything in the packaging world," says Novy.

Custom is king

Novy inspects the carton sealing operation for packs of Chomps.Novy inspects the carton sealing operation for packs of Chomps.Joseph DerrKorpack's one-stop shop approach is marked by an emphasis on custom solutions for its brand partners. Novy reports that Korpack adds value by building digital tools for customers including real-time data portals and dashboards, turnkey inventory and output reports, shipping and receiving visibility resources, and more.

With a focus on speed to market, Korpack has a 30-step onboarding process managed using project management software to move end-of-line packages from prototype to production in a week, combining supply chain planning, design work, and flexible manufacturing partnerships.

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