FlexPAC’s Winning Growth Strategy

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A unique set of core values, a family culture, and an aggressive growth strategy have FlexPAC ready to reach new heights.

Expertise in six product categories. A high level of knowledge and acumen. A robust service department. Industry-exceeding training and education. How do you become the best in the Midwest? FlexPAC has the formula down pat.

These four unique business strategies combine flawlessly with the company’s welcoming family culture and set of straightforward core values to hopefully result in FlexPAC’s most ambitious growth goal yet.

Product Line Diversification
But first, an introduction. FlexPAC provides package design, facility solutions and products, as well as training and safety equipment. This diversification has been a key strategy for the last few years, but it is not how the company was originally founded.

“We noticed a trend in the industry for supply chain optimization,” said Blaine Dinwiddie, President of FlexPAC. “Organizations want to do business with as few suppliers as possible, so if we could provide multiple product categories, our product line would be able to satisfy any customer’s wants and needs and grow our business.”

This approach gives more value to a customer across all levels of their organization. Packaging, facility and safety supplies, automation, corrosion prevention products, and a slew of other items coming from one source simplifies the customer’s ordering experience.

“On the procurement side, customers now order in multiple product categories—50-plus line items—but they are placing one purchase order and receiving one shipment,” said Dinwiddie. “It’s a streamlined process for them.”

“We wanted to offer more value to customers by offering a broader product line,” shared Dylan Caraker, Marketing Manager. “It’s easier for both parties and allows us to better serve them.”

Culture Trumps Strategy
The Dinwiddie family founded FlexPAC knowing that creating a tight-knit employee base would allow the company to thrive in the way it has proven it can. The family culture is punctuated by honest conversations, flexibility in the way leadership makes decisions, and an open-door policy that’s been in place since the doors opened.

“You can have the best strategy in the world, but if you can’t execute, you’ll lose every time. Culture trumps strategy, no question,” shared Dinwiddie.

Caraker mentioned that the culture was great for an outsider like him coming in.

“I’m encouraged to speak up, offer suggestions, and challenge things. The company really does value that close-knit culture. I’m treated like family. It’s nice to be in a place where you are encouraged to be humbly confident.”

The challenge to this approach to company culture is, of course, not losing it as the business scales towards its monumental goal for 2017. That’s where the company’s unusual—but effective—core values come in.

Put the customer first and be pioneering and humbly confident are fairly standard values—but be willing to sweep the floors and, my personal favorite, no jerks, invites a second look. The brand identified its purpose through a partnership with Entrepreneur Operation System (EOS) two and a half years ago.

“Our purpose is to make everything we touch better: our people, our community, and of course, our customers. If we can do that, then we’ll win. And our values really reinforce that purpose.

“We always talk about the right person filling the right seat. Sometimes you get people in who are great at the job, but not the right person for it because they don’t fit our culture.”

“You don’t see core values like these,” shared Caraker. “I remember talking about them with my family before getting hired and chuckling. But it definitely shows how FlexPAC wants to run their family culture.”

Reaching for the StarsSo what is the company’s big growth goal for 2017? Although the company has set what Dinwiddie refers to as “a big, audacious goal” at growing the company to $100m (its current revenue is around $65m), the leadership is less concerned with hitting the number and more concerned about becoming the best in the Midwest.

“Our team wants a specific, smart goal that’s measureable, attainable, and held to a timetable,” he said. “But we’re really using this opportunity to create what we call a painted picture of what reaching that goal would look like. Are we trying to meet this goal with all of our might? Absolutely. But it’s about more than the money.”

Through three pillars—how the company’s growth would affect its customers, employees, and community—FlexPAC has determined a strategy focused around new markets and customer segments.

Columbus is a huge market opportunity for FlexPAC, and the company is looking to further increase their product categories into the package design and corrosion prevention markets. Dinwiddie also cited “beefing up the sales team” by getting new hires up to speed with current employees.

“Our goal is to continue to grow, and always become better.”