Weidenhammer New Packaging Cares About Its Customers

BY COURTNEY KLESS

Weidenhammer New Packaging may be a small company (it has only 25 employees), but it has become the innovation leader for bulk ice cream packaging.

“Bulk ice cream packaging is all that we do. It consumes 100% of our focus,” said Sales Manager Mike Cockrum. “We pride ourselves on being the leaders in this space and that is something that we will continue to do.”

Arthur Weidenhammer founded the company in Germany in 1955. It eventually became Europe’s market leader for composite canisters. Weidenhammer expanded to the United States in 2001, and five years later, it was approached by an ice cream packaging company that wanted to eliminate the metal ring from the market.

“This ice cream packaging company did not have a bulk solution and they wanted to be able to offer one,” said Cockrum. “They knew that the metal rings were an issue, for processors and users alike, and they approached Weidenhammer to see if they could do it. There was already a brokerage that had designed the first machine to form a plastic ring drum, but there were quite a few flaws with it… So, Weidenhammer applied a modern manufacturing process and their world-class capabilities in ‘moving’ paper, and they launched their solution into the market, which was a more robust, simpler design, and user-friendly machine.”

In 2014, the company underwent another change, strategically partnering with Sonoco.

“We kind of broke off as a separate entity here in the states,” said Cockrum. “All we do is the bulk ice cream. So, we basically have our family-run roots from Germany, and the strength of a $7 billion company.”

Today, Weidenhammer offers the largest portfolio of in-plant non-metal bulk ice cream drum forming machines. It also manufactures all of the components of its metal-free bulk ice cream drums (they come in sizes ranging from 1.5 gallons to 5 gallons).

“We can accommodate what anyone wants in size, but our diameters will stay the same,” said Cockrum. “Our drums have a plastic ring that is friction-fit on top. Our sidewalls and bottoms are coated with a thin layer of poly and when heated, they bond and weld together. Our drums can hold water to accommodate for the wetter frozen dessert formulations, like sherbets or water ices. Additionally, we designed the industry’s only all paper 3-gallon drum with a fully automated forming machine, which can provide the lowest cost of ownership of any bulk ice cream solution in the market. We also utilize a digital printer, so we can offer retail-quality graphics for both the outside and inside of our drums…Our machines are renowned for the highest uptime, as well as the greatest use of maintenance and operator preference in the markets that we serve.”

But what truly sets Weidenhammer apart is its customer-centered approach.

“We listen to what specifically their demands are, what they like with what they’re doing right now, and what they don’t like – then we tailor our program to fit what works best for them,” said Cockrum.

To accommodate those demands, Weidenhammer has employed a number of solutions. The company currently has two machines that were inspired by its customers (“they were in need of something that we did not have, they told us what they were asking for, we went back to the drawing board, we designed machines specifically for them, and now we have 20 or 30 of them in the field,” said Cockrum). A few years ago, Weidenhammer also helped a customer by managing a project to alter the packaging material flow of their plant.

“You’ll find in the dairy industry that a lot of these dairies grow when they need to, they don’t plan to,” said Cockrum. “So, they filled the space up and said, ‘Ok, now we need to expand.’ They were looking at doing some brick and mortar, which would have cost them a lot of money. We walked around and noticed that they had a high ceiling warehouse, and we said, ‘Well, what if we went up?’ So, I went out and found a mezzanine company, I went out and found a conveyer company, and set their whole project up. We covered it from a capital expense (we paid for it, then they paid us back in terms that were manageable to them)…We go out of our way to find the right solution for each of our customers, and sometimes it means it’s not even us. And we’re ok with that. We will point them in the direction that’s best for them.”

And Weidenhammer is always willing to adapt.

“That’s what we’ve had to do from the beginning,” said Cockrum. “We may not always be the cheapest thing out

“We care about this industry, and we care about our customers. And we understand that if you stay content and if you stay comfortable, you fall behind, so we always continue to challenge ourselves to innovate and to grow – and we encourage our customers to come back and challenge us as well.”

– Mike Cockrum, sales manager, Weidenhammer New Packaging

there, but you’re going to know the difference when working with us, because you can tell we care. We care about this industry, and we care about our customers. And we understand that if you stay content and if you stay comfortable, you fall behind, so we always continue to challenge ourselves to innovate and to grow – and we encourage our customers to come back and challenge us as well. We even put language in our agreements that if the market shifts, and we are not able to accommodate, they’re free to go.”

“That hasn’t happened yet, and as long as we continue to innovate and grow, we are confident we can keep it that way.”

Courtney Kless is the Managing Editor of Northeast Dairy Media