Growth Enterprises Inc Case
CaSE StudY Illinois Growth Enterprises
CodiNg SolutioN YiEldS growth
Nonprofit co-packer increases business with help from intuitive printer
Co-packers provide supplemental personnel, production space and project management for manufacturers that need expert help for quick-turnaround projects, short runs or overflow packaging projects. This expertise may include having access to special equipment or experience with a new packaging application or challenge. Illinois Growth Enterprises, Inc. (IGE), a co-packer in Rockford, Ill., has 39 years of industry experience in contract packaging and assembly services. It is a nonprofit organization that provides vocational training to people with disabilities, tailoring programs to meet the needs of each worker. Today, IGE employs more than 200 individuals with disabilities, helping them build work habits and skills that enable them to be successful in their careers. In October 2008, IGE received a packaging assignment from Berner Foods, a market-leading supplier of quality food products, including natural cheese, specialty performance cheese and processed cheese in Dakota, Ill. Berner required IGE’s services for packaging individual bowls of cheese dip into chipboard packaging, and then replicating freshness dates from the bowls onto the chipboard. The initial project had to be completed by December 2008. However, for IGE to accept the project, the company needed to invest in variable data coding equipment. Based on its positive experiences with equipment from Videojet Technologies Inc., Berner recommended that IGE consult with Videojet, which subsequently supplied a small character ink jet printer that enabled IGE to take on the project and meet its customer’s needs. trained our staff so we could begin packaging the cheese dip by the fifth day. Without the quick turnaround, we would not have been able to accept the packaging assignment from Berner.”
IGE production managers set up the production lines and, thus, are
CodiNg SolutioN YiEldS growth
Nonprofit co-packer increases business with help from intuitive printer
Co-packers provide supplemental personnel, production space and project management for manufacturers that need expert help for quick-turnaround projects, short runs or overflow packaging projects. This expertise may include having access to special equipment or experience with a new packaging application or challenge. Illinois Growth Enterprises, Inc. (IGE), a co-packer in Rockford, Ill., has 39 years of industry experience in contract packaging and assembly services. It is a nonprofit organization that provides vocational training to people with disabilities, tailoring programs to meet the needs of each worker. Today, IGE employs more than 200 individuals with disabilities, helping them build work habits and skills that enable them to be successful in their careers. In October 2008, IGE received a packaging assignment from Berner Foods, a market-leading supplier of quality food products, including natural cheese, specialty performance cheese and processed cheese in Dakota, Ill. Berner required IGE’s services for packaging individual bowls of cheese dip into chipboard packaging, and then replicating freshness dates from the bowls onto the chipboard. The initial project had to be completed by December 2008. However, for IGE to accept the project, the company needed to invest in variable data coding equipment. Based on its positive experiences with equipment from Videojet Technologies Inc., Berner recommended that IGE consult with Videojet, which subsequently supplied a small character ink jet printer that enabled IGE to take on the project and meet its customer’s needs. trained our staff so we could begin packaging the cheese dip by the fifth day. Without the quick turnaround, we would not have been able to accept the packaging assignment from Berner.”
IGE production managers set up the production lines and, thus, are