July 26, 2016 Packaged Deal

Volume 8 | Issue 3

A producer of corrugated shippers, value-added packaging and point-of-purchase displays, TimBar relies on functionality for their products.

In the fall of 1955, two competing corrugated box salesmen decided to join forces. Thomas Cline and Kenneth Wenk launched Oxford Container in a modest 10,000-square-foot located in New Oxford, Pa. with just 10 employees. The company began manufacturing can cases and brown shipping containers for the local marketplace.

Fast-forward 50 years: That original facility has expanded over the decades from 10,000 to over 500,000 square feet and now holds some of the most state-of-the-art design and manufacturing equipment. Rebranding itself as TimBar Packaging & Display has made the company one upbeat 50-year-old. “Our success has been due in large part to highly skilled employees dedicated to exceptional customer service, reliable, on-time delivery performance and utmost attention to product quality,” says Matt Heleva, president and chief executive officer for TimBar. “Because of this tradition, some of TimBar’s very first employees remain with the company today, many flanked by sons and daughters who have come to join TimBar. Ultimately, the innovation and creativity of our team have helped TimBar broaden our product and service offering to include contract packaging, fulfillment, specialty packaging and award winning point of purchase displays.”

Well – Rounded
Eight manufacturing sites, three fulfillment centers, a temporary employment agency and two design centers make up TimBar’s operation. One TimBar facility is essentially three businesses in one: a corrugated box plant with a new state-of-the-art BHS corrugator, a point-of-purchase display division and a litho-laminated packaging product line. Of the 1,000 employees company-wide, 500 of them work here. “There is no facility like this in the country,” says Heleva. “By understanding each client’s challenges, needs and goals, TimBar excels at developing packaging solutions that exceed customer expectations and are delivered on-time and on-budget. Our solutions go beyond just providing corrugated packaging products. Innovation and integrated processes that streamline operations are hallmarks of every TimBar solution.”

Corrugated is the most widely used material for shipping containers because it is versatile, functional and cost-effective. In its 150,000-square-foot Miami facility, TimBar manufactures corrugated and can produce a broad variety of sheets and containers in B and C flutes.

TimBar was one of the first to introduce E-Flute to the U.S. marketplace, using letterpress to print four-color process on E-Flute, and developing a wax impregnated board for the poultry and produce markets, and converting non-bending chip for patented applications such as the photo album and ring binder business. The fluted medium provides protection and insulation. Micro-flutes such as F and N also provide enhanced graphic capabilities for retail applications and flute profiles can be combined to meet specific needs.

TimBar also offers value-added packaging with litho/lamination, flexography printing up to six colors, color matching services, tight registration and specialty inks and foils. All printing applications are produced in-house giving the company total control over scheduling and print quality.

TimBar knows that with millions of new products entering the marketplace each year, it is becoming more difficult for its clients to stand apart on the retail shelf. Thankfully, this company knows how to grab the consumer’s attention, by moving its client’s products off the shelf and onto its award winning point-of-purchase displays. TimBar offers temporary and semi-permanent displays, and such specialty items as seven color offset printing with aqueous and U.V. coatings, specialty gluing, scented inks, and motion and audio accessories.

Then there is TimBar’s graphic and structure design expertise. From conceptual designs to full size prototypes, the TimBar team ensures that packaging and display concepts meet its clients’ merchandising goals. Its in-house designers are experienced in a variety of retail channels to ensure complete effectiveness of packaging or displays. In April 2004, the design services group relocated its office and joined the Point-of-Purchase Division. This new organizational structure has improved productivity and provides all customers access to a full network of graphic and structural design personnel. Timbar also offers value-added packaging utilizing lithography and flexography printing up to six colors.

The company’s Oneida Division in Vernon, N.Y. specializes in both industrial brown box and retail packaging, and includes a 77,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and an 80,000-square-foot pack-out and fulfillment space. Its Gallatin Division, just outside Nashville, Tenn., includes manufacturing space of 160,000 square feet; there is also a similar facility in Birmingham, Ala. TimBar’s Spartanburg Division comprises a 180,000-square-foot plant in Roebuck, S.C. that produces a broad variety of corrugated containers.

And what would this well-rounded company be without also offering its customers fulfillment services? A 140,000-square-foot, secure, temperature/humidity controlled environment in Hanover, Pa., is just one of several sites where companies can ship their products. “We started our fulfillment center when we developed our POP division. That’s a growth segment of our business. We have customers today that ship their products from South America or China, we pack them into the displays we’ve created for our clients and they will tell us how to configure it for each store. Then we ship them off to their end destination,” says Heleva. “It allows customers speed to market, it eliminates waste in the system and that saves them money. Our pack-out/fulfillment and distribution facilities are strategically located to service multiple geographic areas. We also offer customer display set up and computerized drop shipment and distribution services.”

And finally, TimBar even offers sales and marketing support to its clientele. Need a dazzling presentation to help pitch that next big promotion to a retailer? No problem. From full size to miniature prototypes and virtual store tours, TimBar develops sales presentation tools like retailer reply cards, store surveys and co-branding opportunities.

All Wrapped Up
Sara Lee, Spalding, Hasbro, Intuit, Sanford, and Wyeth: If you’re dropping names, TimBar can keep up. With $200 million in sales annually, TimBar has a diverse clientele, specializing in small- to medium-size clients where service, flexibility and innovation is critical to helping them grow.

One major customer, Sara Lee, used TimBar to help them execute their back-to-school season. “We put sales and project management right inside Sara Lee’s business that share office space with our customer’s production planning and marketing team,” explains Heleva. “We are part of the infrastructure. As they attend the client’s planning meetings, they take the information and go back to our plants with what needs to be done. We’ve integrated ourselves electronically with our customer and our associates have electronic access to our inventory so they can get the job done quickly and efficiently.”

But, says Heleva, the success of TimBar revolves around much more than providing products and services. It’s about partnerships. “Customers are looking for a company that brings more locations, more product offerings, and one-stop shopping. We can sit down with a customer in one sales call and discuss POP, industrial brown boxes, laminated retail packaging and more without them having to talk to three or four different companies. In today’s business environment, purchasing agents are looking for this kind of diversity, production right through to fulfillment. It’s a solution-oriented sell.”

Ultimately, TimBar is razor-focused on helping its customers’ speed to market. Its flat organization helps it make quick decisions and work on taking waste out of its client’s processes. “Service is our whole business. We have a wonderful product array but that means nothing if you can’t deliver and be flexible. It’s an attitude – that service is at the forefront of how to make our customers successful,” says Heleva. “We try to think like the retailer and help our customers merchandise their product more successfully. And we continue to nurture the relationship and bring value to that relationship. We’re all about the long-term.”

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