Who We Work With

We work with packaging manufacturers, converters, and material suppliers navigating decisions where product design, manufacturing capability, and market positioning intersect.

Our work with manufacturers commonly includes:

• Product and portfolio positioning
• Design-for-manufacture alignment
• Evaluation of materials behavior and performance tradeoffs
• Assessment of equipment, tooling, and production-line implications
• Improving manufacturing performance, efficiency, and consistency
• Upgrading or expanding manufacturing capabilities to remain competitive

We also support manufacturers as they:

• Evaluate and adopt new materials or processes
• Consider acquisitions or partnerships
• Expand capabilities to compete more effectively or operate as a broader, one-stop solution for customers

Because we work across manufacturers, packaging users, retailers, and capital partners, we bring a systems-level, market-informed perspective that helps manufacturers align what they make — and how they make it — with how packaging is actually used, evaluated, and scaled in the real world.

We work with brands, foodservice operators, and regulated product companies where packaging decisions directly affect product integrity, cost structure, operational efficiency, customer experience, and brand risk.

In these environments, packaging must perform across multiple dimensions at once — manufacturing, storage, service, retail display, and delivery — often under tight margin, speed, consistency, and compliance constraints.

Our work with brands and operators commonly includes:

• Packaging design leadership grounded in real operating conditions
• Material selection and format decisions tied to product protection, stability, and shelf life
• Manufacturing and co-packing feasibility evaluation
• Packaging performance in handling, transport, and last-mile delivery
• Cost, waste, and damage reduction
• Alignment between packaging intent and day-to-day operational reality

We work extensively with health and beauty, medical, pharmaceutical, and agricultural product companies, where packaging must meet elevated requirements related to protection, stability, traceability, labeling, regulatory compliance, and risk management. In these environments, packaging decisions are constrained not only by operations and cost, but by regulatory expectations, shelf-life sensitivity, and downstream handling conditions.

We also support brands operating in e-commerce and marketplace fulfillment environments, where packaging must survive unit-level shipping, automated handling, dimensional constraints, platform-specific compliance programs, and heightened customer-experience expectations.

In foodservice and restaurant settings specifically, we focus on packaging that supports speed of service, temperature and moisture control, portion integrity, stacking and storage constraints, and delivery performance — not just appearance, cost, or stated sustainability attributes.

Because we work across manufacturing, equipment, retail, and capital environments, we help brands and operators avoid packaging decisions that satisfy one objective on paper but fail operationally or economically when deployed at scale.

We work with retailers and club stores where packaging performance directly affects damage, shrink, merchandising effectiveness, compliance, labor efficiency, and customer experience — often at very large scale.

In retail and club environments, packaging must function simultaneously as:

• Product protection
• A merchandising and display system
• A handling and logistics solution
• A compliance and labeling mechanism

This is especially true in club store, bulk, and pallet-display environments, where unitized packaging, high-weight items, limited secondary packaging, and high-velocity handling place significantly greater demands on packaging design and execution.

Our work with retailers and club stores commonly includes:

• Packaging audits to identify damage, loss, and performance failures
• Evaluation of packaging relative to palletization, bulk display, automated handling, and store-level execution
• Identification of opportunities to improve protection, presentation, labor efficiency, and space utilization
• Assessment of packaging-related compliance, labeling, and regulatory exposure
• Review of private-label and vendor packaging consistency across high-volume programs

We also support retailers and club stores in developing packaging guidelines and requirements for their vendors, establishing clear, enforceable standards for materials, formats, performance, labeling, handling, and display.

Beyond individual SKUs, we help retailers and club stores leverage their purchasing power by:

• Directing suppliers toward specific packaging manufacturers and material suppliers
• Consolidating packaging demand across vendors
• Enabling higher-volume purchasing structures and rebate programs
• Reducing fragmentation and inconsistency across packaging supply chains

As self-manufacturing and in-house packaging capabilities continue to grow, we also advise retailers and club stores on:

• Designing internal packaging production lines
• Evaluating and sourcing packaging manufacturing equipment
• Assessing the economics and feasibility of in-house packaging versus external supply

In many club store and marketplace environments, this includes in-house packaging, assembly, kitting, and fulfillment of bulk products, as well as evaluation of packaging performance in e-commerce and marketplace fulfillment contexts, where automated handling, parcel shipping, and chargeback exposure place different demands on packaging systems.

Because we work across manufacturers, brands, equipment, and capital environments, we help retailers and club stores improve packaging performance and economics without creating unintended cost, complexity, or risk elsewhere in the system.

We work with contract packagers, assemblers, and fulfillment providers where packaging decisions directly affect throughput, labor efficiency, line utilization, damage rates, capital deployment, and customer retention.

In today’s environment, contract packagers operate under increasing pressure from retailers, club stores, and large brands, each imposing specific packaging, labeling, compliance, and performance requirements that must be met consistently and at scale.

Packaging in these operations must align with:

• Existing equipment, tooling, and line configurations
• Changeover frequency and operational flexibility
• Labor availability, training, and efficiency
• Customer- and retailer-specific specifications
• Club store, bulk, and private-label packaging requirements

Our work with contract packagers and fulfillment providers commonly includes:

• Evaluation of packaging compatibility with current equipment, tooling, and processes
• Assessment of packaging formats that materially impact line speed, yield, downtime, and changeovers
• Guidance on material and design choices that reduce damage, waste, and rework
• Support for onboarding new customers with divergent or demanding packaging requirements
• Identification of packaging-driven operational bottlenecks and inefficiencies

As many contract packagers expand into co-manufacturing, private-label production, value-added packaging, kitting, labeling, and direct-to-consumer fulfillment, we help them evaluate how packaging decisions affect:

• Their ability to serve multiple customers efficiently
• Compliance with retailer and club store programs
• Exposure to damage, chargebacks, or rejection
• Long-term scalability and operational discipline

We also advise contract packagers on equipment and capital investment decisions, including:

• When to upgrade or add packaging equipment and production lines
• How to balance flexibility versus specialization
• Whether equipment investments align with current and future customer demand
• How packaging capability expansion affects competitiveness, margins, and risk

Because we also work with brands, retailers, manufacturers, and capital partners, we help contract packagers understand how packaging decisions made upstream translate into downstream operational pressure — and how to position their packaging and manufacturing capabilities more effectively with customers and investors.

We work with investors, private equity firms, venture groups, and strategic buyers evaluating companies where packaging capability, manufacturing discipline, and execution quality materially influence value, risk, and outcomes.

Our role is to help capital partners look beyond surface financials and understand how packaging-related decisions affect scalability, integration risk, competitive durability, and long-term performance.

Our work in investment and transaction contexts commonly includes:

• Evaluation of packaging companies, platforms, and packaging-dependent businesses
• Comparative analysis against direct and indirect competitors to identify structural strengths and weaknesses
• Assessment of manufacturing capability, materials expertise, equipment infrastructure, and operational discipline
• Identification of packaging-driven cost, performance, regulatory, or compliance exposure
• Review of packaging strategy within roll-ups, platform builds, and consolidation efforts

We are frequently engaged to support:

• Venture and growth-stage investment decisions
• Merger and acquisition diligence
• Add-on acquisitions and capability expansion
• Post-acquisition integration planning
• Platform strategy development and execution

Because packaging performance is tightly linked to materials, processes, equipment, capital investment, and operational execution, it often plays an outsized role in whether transactions scale successfully or encounter friction after close.

We help investors and strategic buyers evaluate how likely a business is to succeed, stall, or fail as it grows, integrates, or competes — and how packaging capabilities will influence:

• Integration risk and complexity
• Platform coherence and scalability
• Margin durability and operational resilience
• Strategic positioning and exit readiness

This forward-looking perspective allows capital partners to make more informed decisions before capital is committed and before integration challenges become costly or irreversible.

Across all audiences, clients engage us for the same reasons:

• Independent, systems-level judgment
• Deep knowledge of materials, manufacturing, equipment, and line design
• Ability to connect design decisions to operational reality
• Experience across producers, users, and capital
• Clear thinking under complexity

We do not replace internal teams.

We help them make better decisions.

Most engagements begin with a focused discussion to determine whether and how we can add value.

If you’re navigating a packaging decision with real operational, financial, or scalability consequences, we’re happy to start with a conversation.