M&W WILL CHANGE ITS NAME AND BROADEN CLIENT BASE BEYOND P&G

When M&W Packaging changes its name later this year, it'll be a good thing, said Paul Wiedlin, company president.

So many other companies with national profiles have gone through mergers, acquisitions and other forms of coming together last year for financial reasons, but M&W, soon to be known as Nordenia USA, just wants to send a clearer message.

Ever since M&W started operations in 1990, it has been part of Nordenia International, a multinational maker of flexible packaging based in Germany, but like offshoots of Nordenia in other countries, M&W has gone under its own name, until now.

"When you have a company called Cito in one place and KNU in another, it gets very difficult for a customer to understand," Wiedlin said. "We will give ourselves a better global identity with the name change."

M&W, which started as a maker of packaging with only one client, continued to broaden its client base last year. It originally came to northern Cape Girardeau County to contract with Procter & Gamble's paper products plant, which sits opposite M&W at the junction of Highway 177 and Route J.

Manufacturing of specialty product packaging was up 58 percent last year, Wiedlin said. New and better relationships with companies such as Tyson Foods, Inc., Aluminum Company of America, office supply maker Avery Dennison and instant coffee manufacturer Courtesy Products have made the difference, he said.

Arkansas-based poultry giant Tyson became an M&W client last year after a two-month working relationship in 1998. Tyson was seeking a better looking chicken breast on its packages, which Wiedlin said M&W provided chiefly through its rotogravure printing process.

"The printing they were using before was blah," Wiedlin said. "They wanted a high-quality photo image on the bag."

As a result, Tyson has seen a dramatic increase in sales at club stores. A company vice president in charge of Tyson's business with club stores credited the new packaging, Wiedlin said.

The quality of M&W's printing was recognized by its peers, too. It won the 1999 Golden Cylinder Award from the Gravure Association of America, which is the most prestigious industry award, Wiedlin said. The best printers select the winner from among themselves. The last time M&W received the Golden Cylinder was about five years ago.

The packaging maker's orders from Alcoa doubled last year, and business from St. Louis seed and soil seller Schultz Co. also increased.

The right package can either make a new business or save a faltering one.

"The retail environment demands this," Wiedlin said. "The package sells the product."

As examples, he points to Chef's Choice, a Seattle-based frozen food maker, which has used M&W exclusively since it started manufacturing three years ago.

"They went from an annual revenue of zero to $60 million now," Wiedlin said.

Famous Amos, the cookie company, was experiencing declining sales with its products sold in paper bags, Wiedlin said. After M&W updated the packaging, with better photo images of cookies on resealable bag made of a metallized film, sales jumped 25 percent, he said.

M&W will experience more of its own growth this year as plans are being made for a large capital expansion. Wiedlin expects it to cost well over $10 million, but declined to elaborate at this time.

Last year's growth allowed M&W to pay out a record amount in profit sharing to its employees.

"This helps us build on our team effort," Wiedlin said.

M&W's president is so proud of his employees and facility, he has a standing offer to any potential client: his company will pay expenses to allow a potential customer to see a competitor, as long as the person agrees to come to visit M&W, again at Wiedlin's expense.

One man came to M&W in early February, paying his own way to see M&W and three other packaging manufacturers, Wiedlin said. After touring the facility, the man called on his way to the airport in St. Louis to place his order.

"As a manufacturing person, I know what it is like to bring potential customers into a facility and put on a good show," stated Heath Anderson of QTF Foods in an e-mail message to M&W Packaging. "I was able to tell that it is not a show for M&W, but truly a system that has full involvement from top to bottom."

Wiedlin thinks this is what clients will find during any visit.