A MESSAGE FROM OUR CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Hello once again. In this edition of Pratt E-News you'll read articles about some of the diverse capabilities our company can offer you and your company.    

For instance, you'll find one story that reports on how we're taking waste paper from offices in the middle of New York City, converting it at our plant on nearby Staten Island, then returning it as another functional product to the same offices.

This story drives to the very core of how Pratt Industries thinks and operates -- an example of something we often refer to as “Closing the Loop”.

We take waste paper, which in the past was headed to a landfill and creating harmful environmental impacts, and turn it into high-performance packaging products.

Challenging all industries to use fewer resources (including natural) and to “Close the Loop” is something that not only “feels” good, but it is also a way that will make more money long-term for companies like yours. 

Our goal is to provide your company with unparalleled TOTAL value by offering innovative and competitively-priced packaging solutions that are also environmentally friendly.

And we continue to invest in assets across the country to ensure we fulfill this commitment!

How can we further assist you with your sustainable packaging needs? One of our packaging professionals will gladly review your current requirements and offer profit-improving recommendations that are good for your company and the environment. So contact us today.

Thanks for your time and have a great day...

Regards,

Brian McPheely -- COO Pratt Industries.

Why do American manufacturers continue to use so much heavyweight corrugated packaging when the rest of the world has already converted to environmentally-friendly corrugated using lighter weight components?

The answer lies in the past: Most containerboard mills in the USA and Canada were built in the 1950s to the 1970s and those paper machines are still running heavy weight kraft liners.

Unlike Pratt Industries, most of these other producers really can’t manufacture light weight linerboard efficiently or at competitive prices. So they don’t run 23-pound, 26-pound or even 30-pound in many cases.

“Manufacturers are 20-25% over-packaged when compared to the corrugated specifications used in the rest of the world," said David Dennis, Pratt’s VP of Sales and Marketing.

“Our customers are demanding lighter weight grades to meet their environmental and financial sustainability commitments to their customers.

Therefore, we’re ushering in a new era of ECT packaging using our portfolio of lightweights.”   Pratt’s new 100 percent recycled lightweight paper machine in Shreveport, La., was specifically designed and engineered in Europe to make very strong lightweight liners and mediums which can be used in a variety of end use markets.

We’re investing millions of dollars to give our customers the environmentally-friendly and sustainable corrugated products they want at costs they can afford.

That’s something every buyer of corrugated boxes in the United States wants to hear during these difficult times.

Pratt Industries is leading the drive to lightweight packaging, so why not see what our packaging engineers can re-design for you!

GOING GREEN IS UNIVERSAL

Pratt Industries has teamed with NBC Universal to help the entertainment giant go green by recycling and converting the company’s office waste paper.

Pratt executives said waste paper from NBC’s famed New York City headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza will be collected and transported by Pratt barge down the Hudson River to the company’s mill on Staten Island.

There it will be recycled before being converted at Pratt’s new, on-site box plant into re-usable corrugated CD cases for the network’s internal use. They will help replace plastic jewel covers.

The initial case study collection will yield 15 tons of paper for the month, which is the equivalent of saving 50 trees a week.

Officials from both companies expect the initial agreement will collect and recycle up to 15 tons of paper a month, which is the equivalent of saving 50 trees a week.

The waste paper will be collected at the mid-town Manhattan HQ by trucks from IESI, one of the nation’s largest solid waste management firms.

HELPING CUSTOMERS HELP THE PLANET

Finding solutions to fit individual customer needs has always been a hallmark of Pratt's desire to be more than just another packaging supplier.

That's why leading glass manufacturer Anchor Hocking turned to us for help in finding a way to re-use more than one million sq. ft. of brown shipping boxes that had become obsolete due to inventory changes.

Our team in Lewisburg, Ohio, quickly found the solution - convert the outdated boxes into partitions Anchor could use in packaging their glassware. It was a win-win for both companies. Anchor didn't have to write off hundreds of thousands of dollars in old inventory, and realized further cost savings by using partitions made from their own corrugated inventory.

For Pratt, it meant providing a cost-effective, environmental-sound solution for a good customer - and we're able to recycle our own corrugated waste into partitions for Anchor now that their obsolete inventory has been depleted.

The new partition business Lewisburg offers is just one of many services our Ohio plant provides, including:

• A retail packaging segment which is focused largely on point-of-sale packaging

• Litho labeling / Direct print / Preprint / Digital Printing.

• Special Folder Gluers

• Warehousing, distribution and fulfillment

For more information on what our Lewisburg team can do for you please contact sales manager Allen Conner on (937) 962-2681