Article heading

L amar Guthrie admits thatestablishing a niche in the higher-end corrugated graphics market

wasn’t exactly his plan when he startedChief Container 15 years ago. His son,Reuben, who heads up sales, was thecatalyst.

“I’ve always been a brown box guy,”Lamar says. “Reuben was really the forcebehind us getting into graphics.Whenevera job was two or three colours, he wouldsay, ‘Let’s go one more colour.’”

“I still want to go one more colour,”Reuben says. “We’ve got eight now. I’dlike to go to nine. It’s more fun.”

More fun, indeed. Chief Container inAcworth, (Georgia), belongs on theshort list of pioneers in corrugatedgraphics. Since the mid-nineties, thesheet plant has been pushing theenvelope, printing higher line screensand achieving near perfection in four-colour process, accomplishing what

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many considered impossible at the time.“We do a lot of R&D. We’ve tried a

lot of crazy things. Some of them work,some of them don’t,” Reuben says.“We’ve had a lot of hairbrained ideas.”

“Yes you have,” says ProductionManager Todd Crabtree. When asked forexamples, Crabtree says, “Printing 130line screen or embossing a customer’slogo using the rotary die. We had to crushthe corrugated to make it look like it waspopping out. Not all ideas work.”

This “can do” attitude is commonplaceat Chief, says General Manager Charlie

Thinking like printers34

ALMOST FROM THEBEGINNING, CHIEF

CONTAINER HAS BEENMAKING A NAME FOR

ITSELF IN HIGHER-ENDPRINTING ON

CORRUGATED BOARD.WITH ITS SKILLED WORK

FORCE AND ARSENAL OFPRINTING EQUIPMENT,THIS AMERICAN SHEETPLANT IS CLOSING THE

GAP BETWEEN FLEXOAND LITHO.

By Jackie SchultzEditor

Pioneersin Printing

From left, Charlie Alexander,

Lamar Guthrie, Reuben Guthrie

and Todd Crabtree.

Thinking like printers36

Alexander, who learned about corrugatedprinting from graphics consultant GlenBuckner. “We’re surrounded by talentedpeople who don’t need a lot of direction.They always want to try something new.When we had a two-colour machine,they wanted to print four colours.”

In fact, it was Chief Container thatcame up with a concept for printing sevencolours. United Machinery used thedesign to develop the Flexus.

“We encouraged them to come upwith a machine that would print sevencolours,” Lamar says. “Most people atthat time felt that such a machine mightnot hold registration but we proved thatit could.”

Today, Chief can print eight colours inone pass. The plant has two side by sideseven and eight colour 66 x 113-inchMartin DRO 1628 NT rotary diecutters.

Production runs range anywhere fromfive to 7500, with most of the productbeing larger format. “Our sweet spot isthe larger sheet (40 x 80 inches),”Alexander says.

The company runs one shift. Monthlycapacity is about 40 million sq ft.

Getting Results

Whether it’s brown box, higher-endgraphics, P-O-P displays or fulfillment,Chief Container is results-oriented. For anindependent manufacturer, the companyhas a large design department. TheCreative Group has six structuraldesigners and five graphic designers. Brian

Daniel is the Creative Manager.The designers use ArtiosCAD and

Adobe Acrobat Reader to draw three-dimensional files. Customers can rotatethe files to any side, even upside down.They can zoom in or out, print differentviews and get measurements.

“This solves a lot of problems for usbecause we were constantly gettingrequests from customers saying, ‘I like therendering but I wish I could see the otherside.’ Or ‘Can you add dimensions becausewe don’t have any idea how big thefootprint is on this display,’” Daniel says.

Chief’s product mix is 50%promotional, 30% retail packaging, withthe rest being brown box. Noteworthycustomers include Coca-Cola, CampbellSoup Co., Heinz, Pepperidge Farm,Diageo and Hewlett-Packard (HP). Thesecustomers are high profile, often requiringhigher-end graphics, even award-winning.

In September, Chief received the 2008CorrPak Best of Show award in theprinting category for a two-piece HPpallet skirt. The display also received firstplace in the Flexo Printing on White LinerCombined Board category.

Another entry, the Crown 750 box forDiageo, received second place in the samecategory. Diageo is one of the largestpremium drinks businesses in the world.The Crown Royal box used to be lithoprinted.

An eighth print stationwas added

last year giving one ofthe NT’s hexachrome(six-colour process)

capability.

Thinking like printers

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“This was the first time they’ve triedgetting out of labels,” Alexander says.“They were quite satisfied.”

“Diageo has very demanding printrequirements and we met them quitewell. They wanted litho quality with flexoprint and we gave it to them,” Lamaradds. “It’s more than machines when youget into that type of printing. You’ve gotto have talented people, which we have.”

In many cases, Chief has beensuccessful in convincing customers to

switch from lithography to flexographywhen it makes sense. For example, onecustomer was using a three-colour litholabel that required three operations —printing, laminating and diecutting. Thiswas time-consuming and costly.

“They agreed to allow us toprint their photo images directlyonto corrugated,” Alexander says.

Investing Accordingly

The company’s investment inprinting and convertingmachinery reflects itscommitment to graphics.

The HP pallet skirt won Best of Showin the 2008 TAPPI CorrPak

Competition and first place in the FlexoPrinting on White Liner Combined

Board category. The Crown 750 box forDiageo received second place and theHeinz pallet skirt received third place

in the same category.

The sheet plant has beenpushing the envelope,printing higher line

screens and achievingnear perfection infour-colour process,accomplishing whatmany considered

impossible.

“We have a lot of fire power in thatplant,” Lamar says.

Most of the equipment is relativelynew — within five years. In addition tothe two NTs, Chief has a jumbo 54 x 78-inch Automatän litho label laminator; atwo-colour Martin rotary diecutter; aBobst flatbed diecutter; a three-colourMartin flexo folder-gluer with inlinediecutting; an ink kitchen from PoteetPrinting Systems; a J&L specialty gluer; aRapidex double headed stitcher and gluer;an HP Display Maker digital press, andtwo Kongsberg cutting tables. Productionuses HRMS computer software to trackorders.

Both of the NTs have infrared dryersand an ultraviolet curing system from JBMachinery and anilox rolls from Pamarco.UV is applied to about 50% of theproduct run on the NTs.

“Chief boasts a seven and eight-colour flexo rotary diecutter arsenal that isboth capable of multi-colour processprinting, water-based or UV varnish onsemi-coated and coated papers withdiecutting in a single pass at maximum

Thinking like printers38

Roger Poteet of Poteet Printing Inks designed the inkkitchen to look like a press, hiding the ink drums.

“Most people inour industry say they’reboxmakers or they’re aboxplant, but reallywe’re printers and wethink as printers,”

says Chief ContainerPresident Lamar

Guthrie.

rated machine speeds,” says JBMachinery Vice President, Warren Bird.

JB Machinery and Chief Containerhave taken parallel paths in theircorrugated graphics journey, helping eachother along the way.

“John Bird (JB Machinery President) isan extremely knowledgeable person. Hetook our concept of what we wanted todo in large format printing and helped usgo in the direction where we could do thison high end clay coated material,”Alexander says.

In 1999, JB Machinery equippedChief’s United Flexus 66 x 113-inch six-colour rotary diecutter with fiveinterstation flexo dryers, one final flexodryer and an FCS three bank UV curingsystem in the dwell station (Chief nolonger has the United machine).

The seven-colour Martin, which wasinstalled in 2003, has six interstation flexodryers, one final flexo dryer and an FCSdouble bank UV curing system in thesecond dwell section.

Chief’s second NT, also installed in2003, started out as a three-colour. Fouradditional print units were added in 2005.The eighth print station, added last year,has an interstation flexo dryer, giving themachine hexachrome (six-colour process)capability.

“Hexachrome is an interestingconcept. The colours are very nice, but wereally don’t know if there’s a place for it,”Alexander says. “I don’t know if we’re farenough along that we could convince theCoca-Cola’s of the world that we couldmatch their colours with six-colourprocess.”

both worked at Target and then at Pratt.“They decided they didn’t like workingfor someone else and encouraged me tostart one more boxplant,” Lamar says. Boworks at Chief in sales.

Chief was originally located inMarietta, Georgia. “We started out veryconservatively, renting 45,000 sqft of a150,000-sqft building,” Lamar says.

As it turns out, Lamar was tooconservative. The company grew quicklyand needed more space. Chief ended uptaking over half of the building as well as a65,000-sqft building across the street.“We grew quite rapidly from that pointon,” Lamar says. The company relocatedto Acworth in 2003. There are twobuildings on 46 acres. The main office andmanufacturing is 260,000 sqft, and theSpecialty Packaging Center, dedicated tofulfillment, is 215,000 sqft. Chief hasabout 125 full-time employees.

Lamar attributes the company’sgrowth to “very dynamic sales andproduction people. We had the rightingredients to get it started.”

He is more than humble about Chief’saccomplishments and often praisesReuben, Crabtree and Alexander. “Theseare probably the most talented people inthe corrugated box industry for displays,colours, and creative design.

“We’re trying to become printersrather than box makers,” he continues.“Most people in our industry say they’reboxmakers or they’re a boxplant, butreally we’re printers and we think asprinters. That’s what Todd, Reuben andCharlie do. They think as printers and itmakes a difference.”

Rapid Growth

Lamar founded Chief in 1994, four yearsafter he sold Target Container to PrattIndustries. Alexander left Rock-Tenn tojoin Lamar. Combined, they have morethan 75 years in the corrugated industry.

“I had no plans to start anothercompany when I sold Target,” Lamarsays. “I had a three-year no compete.When that expired I started thinkingabout starting another boxplant.”

Part of that decision was prompted byGuthrie’s two sons, Reuben and Bo, who