With $3 billion in sales and over 80 plants located in 14 countries, Alcan Packaging is a global converting behemoth that belongs on any list of converters to watch. Alcan Packaging combines the capabilities of the former Algroup Wheaton and Algroup Lawson Mardon, as well as the former packaging and foil rolling operations of Alcan, making it both a material supplier and packaging converter. Capabilities in flexibles, folding cartons and blowmolded plastics make it emphatically not just a foil converter. Strong in both gravure and flexographic printing, Alcan Packaging identifies four main markets for its converted products: food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and tobacco. With the upheaval in the global aluminum market—both for containers and other uses, it will be interesting to watch how this converting giant manages its dozens of plants and R&D facilities around the world.

Bemis belongs on any list of converters to watch—if for no other reason than simply its size (sales of almost $2.3 billion, employing over 11,000 people, with manufacturing plants and offices throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe). A global manufacturer of flexible packaging and pressure-sensitive materials, the company is a leader in virtually every type of converting operation: film extrusion, coating and laminating, printing, and p-s adhesive technology. It is also an aggressive acquirer of other converting and packaging businesses: this year it purchased Wisconsin flex-pack converter Duralam, and the global Clysart shrink-film business from DuPont. Other Bemis businesses include well-known converters Curwood, MACtac, PerfecSeal and Milprint. The Bemis Co. Foundation, a well-known industry promoter, recently donated $150,000 to Fox Valley Technical College toward the installation of the school's new PCMC wide-web CI-flexo press.

Originally named C-P Converters, this company began in the flexible-packaging business as a supplier of clear cellophane bags to the potato chip industry. Capabilities expanded to printing, laminating and slitting, with later additions including barrier-adhesive laminations, extrusion laminations and process printing. In early 2002, the 41-year-old flex-pack supplier to snack food, bakery, confectionery and other food and consumer markets renamed itself C-P Flexible Packaging to better highlight its industry niche. Recent capital installations: a new Stanford slitter/ rewinder and an 8-color PCMC VisionMax CI-flexo press. Today, C-P Flexible Packaging continues to grow with packaging for lawn & garden, medical, trading-card and hardware customers.

Founded in 1959 as a division of a wholesale paper distributor by Charles Kiolbasa Sr., Chapco turned to folding-carton production in 1976. Son Charles Jr. took over the business in 1990, and today Chapco serves a wide variety of industries. Constant capital improvement over the years is Chapco's watchword for keeping up with customer demands, including a 56-in. 7-color Mitsubishi sheetfed-offset press in 2000. Chapco walks each customer through the entire process—from design creation to finishing the carton with gluing, windowing or collating. Chapco switched over to CTP production 18 months ago, and has invested in other new prepress equipment.

This forward-thinking subsidiary of Buckeye Boxes Inc. specializes in 8-color process printing, lamination and conversion of bags and pouches. The company was profiled in our June 2002 issue after successfully implementing business software that lets managers better control inventory and perform shop-floor data collection. Customers package pet foods, lawn & garden products, textiles and apparel, food and agricultural products. A separate group, CPC Graphics, provides design and production help to the converter's clients to help them get the most out of the flexo-printing process.

Already the leading folding-carton converter in the U.S., holder of 150 packaging patents, and the winner of dozens of packaging and converting awards, this company, which began life as part of Adolph Coors Brewing, continues to shine. Sales in 2002 totalled $1.1 billion. In markets where Graphic Packaging doesn't already dominate, its is also building capabilities and market share through strategic alliances. Lately, the company has added to its reach in pharmaceutical packaging, inking an agreement with cartonmaker Corpak in Puerto Rico to serve drug customers there, and signing a licensing pact with ProClinical Pharmaceutical Services, Phoenixville, PA for a special kind of compliance blister pack.

Going strong for 90 years, Hammer Lithograph continues to be a major force in printing and labelmaking, and thus a converter to watch in the years ahead. The package-printing company has outgrown two locations over the years to end up in its current 90,000-sq-ft facility adjacent to the Rochester Institute of Technology. Five years ago Hammer Lithograph formed a strategic alliance with ExxonMobil Chemical Co.'s Films Business to create and convert a coated, sheetfed version of Labelytew, a BOPP filmstock previously only sold in roll form. Through this alliance, it is today one of the largest converters of sheetfed BOPP in North America. And with skyrocketing demand for BOPP-film labels, more good news awaits the company tomorrow.

Only four years old, ISO Poly Films was founded on a simple principle: deliver top-quality products backed by a corporate family capable of providing laminating, printing, and coating. In June 1999, Entrepreneur Magazine/Dun & Bradstreet honored ISO Poly Films as one of its "Hot 100" Small Businesses of the Year. The ISO in the company's name is a reference to the international quality standard. And, to top it off, ISO Poly Films is an ISO 9002-certified manufacturer for specialty films.

For family-owned paper converter Larsen Converting, fiscal 2001 broke sales records and ushered in an aggressive capital-spending program to keep up with growth. A new flexo-printing line, representing the fifth press purchase in five years, gave the converter 2- and 4-color printing capabilities to go along with laminating, coating and bagmaking. Core businesses are paper flexpacks, tissue and towel overwrap, and increasingly party goods and tablecovers. Training and operations strengths not usually found at a company of Larsen's size (about 30 employees) include extensive on-the-job flexo training, supplier seminars, and Best Practices. A customer-service extranet is in the works.

Formed by the January 28, 2002, merger of The Mead Corp. and Westvaco Corp., the now $8-billion pro-ducer of packaging, coated and specialty papers, consumer and office products operates in 33 countries and employs more than 30,000 people worldwide. A strategy to build its package-converting base and divest inefficient or non-packaging businesses has ensued. On the plus side is the addition of Dublin, Ireland-based Kartoncraft Ltd. in April and the creation of WestvacoEastPrint, a Russian packaging JV in June. On the off side is the sale of its AL corrugated-medium mill and the consolidation of envelope and flex-pack manufacturing in MA, and paper-sheeting operations in MD. A management shuffle makes Rita V. Foley president of its Consumer Packaging Group in July, succeeding Richard H. Block who takes on the role of group chair-man. It appears the merger is a success and will help MeadWestvaco to remain an industry pillar into the 21st century.

As the inventor of in-mold labels for the US market in the late 1970s, Multi-Color has always tried to stay on the leading edge of technology. The last few years have seen strong moves into shrink-sleeves and p-s labels as the $53.3 million converter expands its product offerings to also include contract packaging. It bought Cincinnati-based Quick Pak in May 2002, which specializes in promo-packs for HBA clients such as Andrew Jergens Co. and Bath & Body Works. Along with a Six Sigma program to be introduced throughout Multi-Color next year, the company plans to continue a selective-acquisition strategy to grow in the markets it serves.

The former Tenneco Packaging, spun off and renamed Pactiv Corp. in late 1999, is today a $2.8-billion specialty converter of foodservice, food, protective and flexible packaging, as well as Heftyw consumer products. It operates 72 facilities in 13 countries. Pactiv purchased IL-based Winkler Forming, a thermoformer of APET for food packaging, and 70 percent of Mexico-based Jaguar Corp., another thermoforming business, for a total outlay of $138.5 million this year. Explosive growth in the foodservice-packaging arena worldwide, along with unending moves by all types of customers toward flexibles, means Pactiv should see healthy growth throughout its first two decades as an independent business.

This family-owned, $5 million label house is an early adopter of digital printing, having acquired an HP-Indigo digital press which operates alongside its flexo label-printing capabilities. At Prestige's plant in Burgaw, NC, prepress capabilities include state-of-the-art software and a high degree of prepress management expertise, which comes in handy when smaller companies need help in designing their labels. A variety of high-quality finishing options are also handled in-house. With a hand-picked staff from all over the U.S., and a growing stable of customers, Prestige Label understands its niche and prides itself on impeccable customer service and the highest quality. Tropper seems ready and willing to spend on capital equipment to support the labelmaker's growth, and doesn't rule out acquisitions of other companies with a strategic fit in capabilities or markets.

This privately-held flex-pack converter has both a solid reputation for expertise in several types of converting, and a blue-chip customer list: Frito-Lay, Hershey Foods, Quaker Oats, Coca-Cola, Nabisco and Nestle. Manufacturing capabilities include gravure and flexo printing, adhesive and extrusion lamination, metallization, bagmaking and thermoforming. Printpack employs about 4,300 workers across approximately 20 facilities in the U.S., England and Mexico. It's worth noting that The Gay and Erskine Love Foundation, a charitable foundation established in 1976 by the founder of Printpack and his wife, makes charitable grants to a broad range of organizations. Since its inception, the Foundation has made gifts totaling over $7 million to more than 500 national and local groups.

Started as a sheetfed printer of flyers, letterheads and other commercial jobs under the name Schenker Printing in 1933, this converter merged with Rollprint Products Corp. in 1968 to become Rollprint Packaging Products. Within a few years, Rollprint ventured into the medical-packaging market, entering a JV with Baxter-Travenol to develop a breathable, ethylene-oxide sterilizable pouch. Today, Rollprint has the capabilities to research and develop unique packaging with its custom equipment and R&D lab. In March 2001, Rollprint joined forces with Pactiv Corp.'s Sengewald division in Germany to create a global partnership for medical packaging. The company also focuses on challenges in other markets, including food flexpacks. It won 2000 and 2001 FPA Achievement Awards for portion-control flex packs for Tabascow green pepper sauce and for the FlexFormE F for the Triagew Cardiac System.

The fact that Smyth Cos. celebrated 125 years in business in 2002 is enough to grant the commercial printer and converter of labels, on-pack promotions, POP displays and other packaging a spot in our list of companies to watch. With nearly $100 million in sales and about 625 employees at five plants, it consis-tently upgrades capabilities, especially in its sheetfed offset and p-s flexo label operations. One of the newest offerings: Web-enabled e-commerce for customers to track order status, shipment information, inventory and accounts receivable. Smyth's next move might include acquisitions that expand on its established Interactive Packaging Group—a combination package-solutions designer and contract-labeling operation in Golden, CO.

This aggressive pouchmaker, less than two years old, is hardly suffering from a Sophomore Slump. Profiled in our June 2002 issue, after purchasing new slitting capability from Deacro, the company already boasted Totani pouch machines and Hudson-Sharp zipper units. By early fall, they had added more zipper capability and have jumped into reclosables in a major way. Equipment from both Presto Products (Fresh-Lock) and Pactiv (Slide-Rite) is being or has been installed, to enable TechniPac to serve as an expert outsourcing partner in pouchmaking and applying reclosable features—whether those customers are brand packagers or other converters. Look for them to make some noise promoting this consumer-friendly package.

With its headquarters in Green Bay, and locations in Dallas and Newton, NC, Tufco is capable of converting a myriad of products. From contract converting to supplying its Hamcow brand paper products, along with two newer presses in the Green Bay and Newton plants, its technology is current and ready to serve. Green Bay trims and prints special paper tablecovers, as well as various film products, Other services: adhesive laminations, custom packaging solutions, wide-web calendering and embossing. Newton flexo-prints parking tickets, ATM, point-of-sales (POS) rolls, and various customer store receipts for stores. Many are on thermal paper for security reasons. Strong demand for foodservice packaging, as well as continued moves toward a cashless society, make both converting ends of Tufco's spectrum worth watching.

With more than 700 kinds of specialty adhesive tapes in its product roster and customers in every corner of the globe, 22-year-old Venture Tape is young, innovative and ready for even greater growth—capacity-wise. A $12-million, 30,000-sq-ft expansion in the past year gave the converter a fourth state-of-the-art, high-speed coater as well as a downstream slitting and robotic-packaging line. Further expansion at its now hemmed-in HQ site may be impossible. With 25 percent of sales to foreign customers, look for Venture Tape to possibly open its second facility overseas.

A careful strategy of additive acquisitions has more than doubled the size of this national converting powerhouse to about $225 million in the last two years. Its most recent buys: CA-based p-s wine labelmaker Blake Printery and digital label printer IdentiGraphics, Portland, OR. Despite rapid expansion to 17 manufacturing plants nationwide and moves into folding cartons and other end products, WS strives to maintain personal customer service. Serious moves into digital prepress and digital printing are keeping the company on the cutting edge of technology. When labelmakers talk about industry consolidation, they're sure to include WS in the conversation. Further acquisitions are no doubt ahead.