Dec 4, 2017 | Uncategorized
Author, entrepreneur, and marketing legend Seth Godin recently posted a thought-provoking piece called The Unfair Advantage. It’s short, so there’s no point in summarizing. Here it is in its entirety:
Here’s a sign I’ve never seen hanging in a corporate office, a mechanic’s garage or a politician’s headquarters:
WE HAVE AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE:
We care more.
It’s easy to promise and difficult to do. But if you did it, it would work. More than any other skill or attitude, this is what keeps me (and people like me) coming back.
When I read this, I was immediately struck by how relevant it is to our perspective at A-Pac Manufacturing. Our quality policy is “to provide the best bag- or film-buying experience available in our product niches.” We take that to mean not only using the best raw materials to make the best quality poly bags we can, but also providing an exceptional experience for our customers throughout the buying process. Maybe we haven’t explicitly said it, but we truly do believe we care more than the competition. We hope we have proved that to you with friendly interactions, quick response times, and always going over and above what you expect from your poly bag supplier.
Our commitment to providing the best bag-buying experience is a comprehensive one—that is, one that not only includes the end product but how you’re treated along the way. We believe we care more, and we believe that gives us an unfair advantage. We hope you agree.
Nov 3, 2017 | Uncategorized
As you know, there’s been no shortage of news related to resin pricing over the last couple of months thanks to Hurricane Harvey. Now that November is here and some of the dust has settled, we thought it would be a good time to send out another update.
The proposed resin pricing increases of $.07/lb we mentioned last time have indeed gone through, with some producers even adding in an additional $.03/lb, for a total of $.10/lb since August.
To help understand why this has happened, let’s look at what The Plastics Exchange said in their most recent update:
Harvey’s impact on PE production was extreme, with many reactors shut for varying lengths, [and] operating rates only averaged 75% in Sept. Rapidly rising spot prices curtailed incremental exports, with less than 600 million lbs sent offshore, while domestic demand remained healthy. Together overall demand contributed to a massive 435 million lb upstream inventory drawdown, which was quite evident in tight Sept/Oct supplies.
Now that most petrochemical plants have come back online and supply issues seem to be easing, we hope this will be the last of the increases for a while.
As for lead times, we’re currently looking at a 3 to 4-week window. If you know you’ll be placing an order in the next month or two, please let us know as soon as you can so we can schedule accordingly. We always strive to meet 100% of all our due dates, but any advance notice you can give us would be much appreciated.
If you have any questions or comments about this update or would like to place an order, please send us an email or call us at (800) 272-2634. Thank you for your continued business, and we look forward to serving you.
Oct 10, 2017 | Uncategorized
We’re delighted to announce that we’re in the process of obtaining our Food Safety System Certification, or FSSC 22000. This certification was designed to provide companies with an independent, ISO-based food safety management system that controls and minimizes food safety hazards. Companies that package food products now look for their suppliers to meet the high standards of the FSSC 22000, and it’s our hope that by obtaining our certification we can become the preferred supplier for companies that use poly bags to package food.
In order to obtain the certification, we must meet a number of operational requirements. Many of them we already meet unofficially, but there are some policies we will be updating, enforcing more strictly, or adopting for the first time. Here are just a few:
- Food and beverages are not allowed at any machines, and all food must be stored and eaten in designated break rooms or outside the plant. We will be building an additional break room to ensure all employees have easy access to comfortable places to eat and store their food.
- We already have a no-smoking policy in our plant, but we are now adopting a strict no-tobacco policy.
- All employees have been expected to wash their hands after eating, tobacco use, or using the restroom, but we will now require it without exception.
- Where appropriate, employees will be required to wear hairnets and other protective articles of clothing.
Receiving the FSSC 22000 can be a long and arduous process, but we believe it will be worth it in the long run for both us and our customers. It will push us to be the best company we can be, and it will give our customers who package food products the peace of mind they require.
We will post another update when our certification is complete, but if you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please feel free to send us an email or call us anytime at (800) 272-2634.
Sep 15, 2017 | Uncategorized
In our last post, we mentioned that our own resin supply should be unaffected by Hurricane Harvey, but that resin costs would likely be on the rise. As predicted, the rounds of resin price increases proposed over the past couple months have been bolstered by the production disruptions, and it now looks like both of the recent increases totaling $.07/lb will go through.
As for our own supply, we are closely monitoring our resin supplies and do not expect that we will have any issues.
From The Plastics Exchange‘s most recent update:
“Although the $.03/lb polyethylene increase slated for August was unlikely to take hold, Hurricane Harvey came along to instead seal the deal with swift and full implementation. At the time, there were only two PE producers that had issued an additional $.04/lb increase for Sept contracts, but after the storm, the balance of producers nominated their own $.04/lb increases with target dates of either Sept 15th or Oct 1st. Given the massive supply disruptions, we expect these additional increases to also become solid.”
Looking ahead, it’s difficult to say if there will be more increases beyond these—much depends on how quickly and easily producers can get back to business as usual. As always, we’ll keep you updated on significant developments as they come through.
If you have any questions or comments about this update or anything else at all, please send us an email or call us at (800) 272-2634. Thank you for your continued business, and we look forward to serving you.
Aug 30, 2017 | Uncategorized
First and foremost, we’d like to express our heartfelt care and concern for those affected by Hurricane Harvey. We’re thinking about everyone involved and continue to hope for a quick recovery.
In addition to the people affected by Hurricane Harvey, many resin manufacturers, as well as businesses that rely on resin, have also been affected. According to The Plastics Exchange:
Ahead of Harvey’s landfall, petrochemical complexes began to take precautionary matters by shutting down numerous facilities including crackers, refineries, resin reactors, as well as logistics related shipping channels, ports, warehouses, railways and roads, which together, will absolutely impact resin supply – the full magnitude of which cannot be determined as the storm system remains active. … A series of force majeure notices have since been issued by resin producers, citing plant shutdowns and logistics constraints.
Despite this supply disruption, we can report that our own supply shouldn’t be affected.
As we mentioned in a blog post in June, we purchase our resin supply well in advance of when we’ll actually need it and purchase from multiple sources. This gives us a nice buffer to work with when disruptions occur.
As for resin pricing changes, The Plastics Exchange also noted that “the major energy markets all moved lower and we expect heightened volatility as the hurricane related market unfolds.” To that point, a $.03/lb increase for August had been nominated before Hurricane Harvey struck. At the time it didn’t appear it would stick, but now, with so many shutdowns along the Gulf, it seems more likely to go through.
There are also rumblings that producers now want to institute an additional $.04/lb increase for September. It’s still too early to tell if that increase will hold, but if resin supplies continue to be impacted long term, it won’t be hard to imagine it going through. We’ll keep you updated on any developments as they come through.
If you have any questions or comments about this update or anything else at all, please send us an email or call us at (800) 272-2634. Thank you for your continued business, and we look forward to serving you.
Jun 20, 2017 | Uncategorized
One question we receive frequently has to do with how explosions or fires at resin manufacturers affect our supply or pricing.
The answer is they usually don’t.
We buy our resin supply well in advance of when we’ll actually need it, which means we’re always one step ahead of any hypothetical disruptions that might occur. This doesn’t mean we’ll never encounter a situation where we’ll need to replenish our supply at the exact same time a supplier experiences a disruptive event, but it gives us a nice buffer to ride it out or make other plans in case something unforeseen happens.
Having said that, what would happen if we did need to replenish our supply at the same time one of our suppliers had an on-site explosion? We buy our resin from multiple resin manufacturers—manufacturers we’ve chosen carefully and have spent years cultivating trusted relationships with—so if an issue arises with one in particular, we can usually count on our other suppliers to work with us to make sure we get the resin we need to fulfill our customers’ orders on time and without interruption.
As you can see, planning ahead, both by ordering in advance as well as creating trust-based relationships with the best suppliers around, is essential to making sure our customers receive their orders when they need them. We believe that’s the type of business model that sets us apart from our competition.
