There are literally thousands of consumer goods brands to choose from when a consumer walks down the aisles in a supermarket.

When the consumer sees dozens of ketchups, for example, there are many factors that they are considering. It might be a specific brand, or it could be color or packaging that catches their eye.

For brand owners, packaging both protects and helps to sell their products, and their printers are important partners. One of the largest privately-owned label printers in North America, Inland Packaging takes pride in partnering with their customers to create value for food, beverage and consumer product packaging customers.

Jackie Kuehlmann, director of marketing for Inland, noted that Inland is in its third generation of family leadership.

“John Glendenning, our current CEO’s grandfather, bought out his partners in 1944, and what started out as a local print shop has grown into a multi-location, global partner for labels and packaging,” said Kuehlmann.

Headquartered in Lacrosse, Wis., Inland first made its name in the area of labels for beer, but that expertise has helped the company expand into new markets along the way.

“Historically we’ve been known as the beer cut and stack people, but our expertise in cut and stack labels and a reputation for having labels that work better than the competition has allowed us to expand into other end-use markets – especially food - as well as expanded our product portfolio to include pressure sensitive, shrink and in-mold labels in addition to our most recent addition - flexible packaging,” Kuehlmann noted.

“Our core business continues to be beer, but food is the next largest market segment that we serve,” she added. “We also supply beverage, including a large portion of bottled water, household goods, health and beauty, nutraceuticals, wine & spirits, pet, private label, organic and other specialty items.”

Inland has a wide range of printing technologies that it adapts to the needs of its customers, and the company adds new technologies to meet the evolving needs of the market.

“We have flexographic, digital, offset and gravure print technologies, which allows us to meet just about any label or packaging need a customer might have,” said Kuehlmann. “We have chosen to invest in new technologies over the years to allow us to continue to support our customers as their needs and the needs of the market have changed.”

Inland Packaging’s award-winning quality and willingness to invest in new technologies as well as in its people, are among the keys to its strong growth.

“People ask us all the time what makes us different,” Kuehlmann said. “Everyone has quality labels and good customer service or they wouldn’t still be in business, but what really makes Inland different is five key things: growth, investment, market awareness, transition expertise and our people.

“We have invested over $30 million dollars back into the company in the past 18 months and upwards of $50 million in the past five years,” Kuehlmann added. “Being family owned allows us to react quickly to the changing market. We continue to invest in the company specific to our customers’ needs to support their growth.”

Knowing their markets is critical to staying ahead of the needs of their customers.

“We have a keen awareness of what is happening in our industry, as well as trends in the end-use markets that we supply,” Kuehlmann observed. “We are always looking to see what’s next and our Engineering and Packaging Innovation groups work together to scope new products, new markets and new technologies and bring them to fruition – many times in partnership with our customers and other supply chain partners.

“Moving a portfolio of business is difficult, and many times that is what prevents an organization from switching to a supplier who is a better fit for them,” she continued. “We are no strangers to transitioning business from another supplier to Inland. We have transitioned close to 6 billion labels and thousands of SKUs over the past few years.”

Excellent customer service is critical in Inland’s success.

“Everyone says they have good customer service, but our people truly go above and beyond to service our customers,” noted Kuehlmann. “We have a training program, for both our professional and production staff, that is unmatched in our industry and our operations staff are fully cross-trained so we can adjust appropriately to accommodate demand. We are a proudly family-owned company and you can see the difference when you walk through our facilities.”

When it comes to ink suppliers, Inland examines a variety of factors, with an emphasis on safety.

“The expectation for our ink supplier or any supplier is that safety is a number one priority,” Kuehlmann noted. “We expect them to perform in accordance to all safety requirements within our facilities. From there, the key aspects of ink supply are image quality, on press performance, color matching service, rapid response service, total cost, product innovation and technical support. We are committed to collaboration and partnerships and want suppliers who want to work together with us to help our customers succeed.”

Inland’s dedication to quality and customer service has been key to the company’s growth, and will continue to help the company grow in the future.

“We have more than doubled our size in the past eight years,” Kuehlmann concluded. “We wouldn’t be growing at this rate if we didn’t have quality labels and excellent customer service, but we also wouldn’t be taking business away from our competitors if we didn’t have something more to offer customers.”