The GlobalPac Alliance

You’re all familiar with corrugated cardboard – the material used to make all kinds of packaging, shipping boxes and many product displays. What you probably don’t know is that packaging is a $33 billion-dollar industry, one also threatened by consolidation. Here, a few dominant players are buying up hundreds of local, independent packaging manufacturers, simultaneously putting pressure on the jobs of the national network of independent salespeople who rep for them. And while consolidation is not always bad, in this case experts see the long-term outcome as continued price increases, reduced innovation, fewer packaging options, and the extinction of a lot of local, independent businesses – many family-owned for generations. This makes these independent converters and independent sales people – as well as the customers they sell to – perfect beneficiaries of an intelligently applied cooperative model.

The idea for a corrugated alliance came from several visionary leaders within the corrugate industry. Called the GlobalPac Alliance, its mission is to protect the future of the industry’s independent manufacturers and salespeople. And in doing so, improve the pricing, creativity and breadth of options they can offer to their customers.

The GlobalPac Alliance is a “hybrid” cooperative with features of both a purchasing and a sales cooperative. It’s a purchasing cooperative because it pools member buying power to reduce the costs of raw materials and other operational expenses. It’s a sales cooperative because it unites members in a joint effort to sell their products, either under their own names, or – when it’s to their advantage – under the GlobalPac Alliance brand. See the alliance’s website at GlobalPacAlliance.com.