Awards. Americans love them. We love to win. From the third-grade class spelling bee to the Oscars, nothing says America like a ribbon, a plaque or a great big trophy.

It's also fun to give awards. When you create an awards program, you're entitled to decide what the awards represent, and why the winners are worthy of recognition. The editors of Converting have visited the plants and offices of a great many converting companies, big and small, over the past two decades. When you've been to enough of them, it becomes obvious when a converting company is special—when they've gone beyond being a shop that opens at 9 and closes at 5 and gets acceptable product out the door, and no more.

Special converters, whether privately owned partnerships or big corporations, think creatively and optimistically, keep an eye on quality as well as on the bottom line, take care of their customers in innovative ways, and acknowledge that their companies are part of a larger community. Whether that means walking to raise money for the childrens' hospital, or being a national leader in waste reduction and environmental awareness—they do what they're able to do. And that's why these four converters—two large, two small, are our inaugural 2006 Converting Innovators.

The criteria were simple. We wanted to recognize converters who were “doing well by doing good” for their customers, their employees, their communities and their markets. Areas of recognition could include:

• Innovative business practices
• Notable investment in business technology
• Quality control practices
• Unusual business savvy
• Employee awards
• Exceptional community or trade association involvement.

Nominations of converting companies for this honor could come from employees, suppliers, clients, consultants, or peers. The simple one-page nomination forms were available for download from our website, www.convertingmagazine.com, or from one of several e-blasts sent to electronic subscribers. Forms were also mailed to select advertisers and distributed at trade shows. From the initial pile of nomination forms, editors and staff of Converting narrowed down the group to 15 or so finalists and began the phone interview process. When all was said and done, we came up with the four converting companies we've profiled here.

Call it the little label company that can. Orange, CA-based Labeltronix (www.labeltronix.com) has distinguished itself from any number of small label companies in two ways.

First, with innovative practices. Labeltronix' Lean Labeling (sm) program is tailored to the individual customer and ranges from custom in-house printing systems, with on-demand desktop printers supplied by Labeltronix, to supplied digital prepress, print and delivery of just the right number of labels. The overall program is centered on an inventory-management strategy designed to reduce costs for customers, and eliminate obsolete labels. The investment three years ago in an HP Indigo digital press reflects the company's commitment to digital printing.

“Many of our customers are in the vitamin and nutraceuticals industry,” says president and chief executive officer John Trail. “They have many SKUs and often include private-label products with many brands and variations. We want to help them with design and layout while minimizing obsolete labels. That's where the Lean Labeling program can really be a benefit.”

The second way Labeltronix has distinguished itself from other small label converters is by gaining a reputation as a good neighbor within Orange, CA. Labeltronix' schedule of philanthropic activities stretches the year round, encompassing such things as working with the Friendly Center of Orange to collect toys and food for low-income families; providing Thanksgiving baskets for families during the holidays; and participating as a team in the CHOC Walk to raise funds for the Children's Hospital of Orange County.

Acting as the coordinator for all this activity is human resources manager Rayanne Burd. “The CHOC walk is the most popular event with our employees, whether they walk or contribute to a sponsorship,” she says. “Most all of our employees participate in the food/toy drive for the Friendly Center during the holidays as well. This Thanksgiving, our goal is to provide all the groceries needed for Thanksgiving meals to 25 families in need in our community. We are well on our way to achieving this goal.”

“We're not a big company, only about 55-60 employees, but we do what we can, and we have fun doing it,” Trail adds. Do they ever! These “Labeltronians,” as they call themselves, have enough esprit de corps for a company twice its size. Most converters were content to send in one or two nomination forms for the Converting Innovators program. Converting received 29 forms from Labetronix—from the plant manager and marketing and technical support staff all the way down to individual operators. Each one wanted to make sure we knew what a great company it was. Now we do.

Midwest Converting (www.midwestconverting.com) has experienced startling growth by serving as the paper-converting extension of its customers' operations, and adding transportation and warehousing into the mix of services they offer. Converting first profiled this company for a Slitter/Rewinder supplement in the fall of 2000, when the venture was barely a year old.

According to company president Rob Srebalus, they are the largest paper converter in the region that does not buy or sell paper. “We have the ability to offer our customers a flexible business model that allows them to have a complete operational facility that includes paper converting, warehousing, distribution, and logistics in one facility, and at a 100-percent variable cost structure,” he says.

Midwest's converting equipment in the Bedford Park, IL, plant offers startup companies the advantages of an established paper converter located in the heart of the country, with the ability to get large or small orders out the same day or the next day to anywhere else in the US. Other business advantages are computerized inventory, one-stop shopping, reduced operations costs, converting of all types whether first-line or salvage work, and just-in-time delivery. Srebalus emphasizes that customers can keep their paper closer to their customers, by storing finished stock or parent rolls ready for converting on demand.

Two state-of–the-art high-speed rewinders can handle from 11- to 114-in.-wide rolls. The sheeting department can handle roll widths from 17½ to 84 in. wide, and the trimming department can handle sheets up to 100 in. wide. Midwest processes paper from 30-lb newsprint up to 30-pt board stock, coated or uncoated.

“With our converting machinery located in a Midwest warehouse, our operation has the flexibility to handle a 2-ton order or a 500-ton order at any time. Thanks to our in-house transportation partner, orders can be delivered the next day or even the same day.

“Located in the Chicago area, our location allows paper mills and merchants the ability to reach markets outside their own geographic area, providing service levels consistent with customer demand for just-in-time deliveries,” says Srebalus. “We've allowed the startup of many companies, and we've helped the expansion of companies, with no capital investment, through our paper-converting business model.”

Srebalus also adds that the Bedford Park facility recycles 500,000 lbs/month of graded and sorted paper, and that with added employee incentives, the facility has gone five years without a lost-work accident.

K-C is recognized as the kind of corporate citizen that extends a helping hand to organizations such as United Way of America, which awarded the company its Summit Award for Corporate Leadership.

In the company's own words: “Just as Kimberly-Clark's well-known brands help enhance people's lives, the company strives to do the same in our charitable giving. Built on a culture of caring, Kimberly-Clark supports a range of programs, organizations and causes that strengthen families in communities where they operate and around the world.”

In 2005, the meaning of that culture was really tested. The Kimberly-Clark Foundation, the company and its employees contributed about $28 million globally and donated more than $2.5 million worth of product, primarily for disaster relief to victims of the South Asian tsunami and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the US.

Altogether, Kimberly-Clark and its worldwide workforce contributed $1.5 million in cash and product to tsunami relief. Barely nine months later, following Hurricane Katrina, K-C and its employees responded again with over $1.3 million in total donations. That amount was matched by the Foundation—which went further to award more than $1.4 million in grants to charities where K-C employees or their spouses volunteered their time.

Other longtime associations K-C supports include the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the YMCA of the USA, the United Way, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

Local United Way campaigns were some of the most successful in the company's history. In Neenah, WI, operations headquarters for K-C's consumer products businesses, employees broke previous campaign records, raising more than $1.2 million and exceeding the campaign goal by 33 percent. Since K-C matches employee giving to local United Way campaigns dollar-for-dollar, the company contributed a total of more than $6.2 million to United Way organizations in its hometown communities.

Neenah employees aren't just generous with their dollars. They're aggressive when it comes to continuous improvement. Its two-day lean manufacturing workshops apply lean principles to all aspects of business process execution. The initial 25 workshops have generated savings of over $10 million, product development launches reach markets months sooner, and production downtime is completed 33 percent faster. Kimberly-Clark is continuing to aggressively cut costs and improve operational efficiency even as it reduces the overall workforce in the Fox Cities, Wisconsin area, where it employs approximately 4,500 people at multiple plants.

Alcan Packaging is part of $20 billion corporation The Alcan Group (Montreal), an outstanding corporate citizen whose environmental and human-rights endeavors include membership in the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights and serving as founder of the global Alcan Prize for Sustainability.

Instead of coasting on the good deeds of a corporate parent, however, Alcan Packaging (Chicago) through its innovative EHS (Environmental Health and Safety) FIRST program has evolved a series of initiatives on the individual community/plant level.

One recent success story involves the Alcan Packaging converting plant in Joplin, MS, whose employees have made monthly workplace safety education presentations to the fourth-graders at the Eugene Field Elementary School for over two years, highlighting the promotion of safety values with practical cases that affect children.

According to Alcan, the program consists of presentations to the children on a variety of topics, including:

The importance of organization and housekeeping in ensuring a safe and healthy environment,

• Understanding our impact and responsibilities related to the environment,
• Promoting safety during daily tasks, sports and holiday/summertime activities,
• The value of personal protective equipment,
• Recycling and its importance in protecting the earth's resources.

These themes are worked into the school curriculum in subjects such as geography, science, reading, writing and mathematics. Now in its third academic year, “EHS: Project Education” has reached more than 300 children, according to Alcan. Not only has the facility received requests to repeat the program in other Joplin-area schools, but increasing numbers of plant employees have requested to join the 120 Alcan members who have donated time, skills, and materials thus far. The program involves other area business partners and organizations who participate in and back the program.

According to Alcan's own mission statement, “Partners involved in the program are learning to 'live' EHS FIRST in the plant, at home and in the community, and are becoming effective EHS FIRST leaders and role models… “It is difficult to measure the full extent of this project's positive impact on the communities surrounding the Joplin plant. It is known, however, that Alcan is viewed within the local area as an excellent employer, a role-model company and a valued partner.” Sounds like a win-win-win—for the students, for the Alcan employees, and for the Joplin community at large.