According to a report by the South Bend Tribune, South Bend, Ind., USA, on Tuesday (February 9), Jamil Packaging (Mishawaka, Ind.) has been growing during the past year, thanks to the company's partnership in an Elkhart County, Ind., plant that produces sheets of corrugated paper.

 

Jamil and five other Midwestern packaging companies joined forces to open Alliance Sheets in October 2014 in Bristol, Ind. The new $30 million plant means that Jamil no longer has to buy corrugated sheets from outside suppliers.

 

"What that does is vertically integrates Jamil and our partners. It makes us more efficient and competitive," Jamil's GM David Diroll said, adding that having that supply just 25 miles from the company's Mishawaka box plant is an advantage as well.

 

"We've been trying to do something similar for years. We were one of the ringleaders," Diroll said of Alliance Sheets. "It was important to Jamil to be able to have that facility in Michiana. We were really excited about having the facility in Elkhart County."

 

 

 

Pictured above: Alliance Sheets, which makes corrugated paper for packaging companies, had these 65,000-lb. clamp trucks specially made to load and unload 132-in. rolls of paper in the Bristol facility 

 

Alliance Sheets, which employs more than 65 people in its 165,000 sq. ft. plant, also supplies more than a dozen packaging companies that aren't partners in the facility. Diroll said the corrugator at Alliance Sheets is the largest in the Western Hemisphere.

 

Jamil, which has about 110 employees, has made investments at its two box plants to prepare for the growth enabled by the Alliance Sheets partnership.

 

The company has now purchased new box-making equipment for its main plant in Mishawaka to increase capacity there. It also bought new delivery vehicles to support larger volume.

 

 

 

Pictured above: Jamil Packaging added this new BOBST box-making equipment at its main plant in Mishawaka. The machine in this photo enables Jamil to manufacture box orders in less than 24 hours. 

 

Jamil built a 15,000 sq. ft. addition to its plant in Gallatin, Tenn., and added box making equipment there as well. Diroll said one of the keys Jamil focuses on is providing same-day deliveries, so customers don't need to keep large inventories of boxes in their factories. The Alliance Sheets partnership and Jamil's investments in its two box making plants support that quick response to orders.

 

"They can free up their own cash, because they don't have to overbuy, and it helps them save on space in their facilities," Diroll said. "Instead of using that space to store boxes, they can use that space to make more product."