The Packaging Digest Suppliers Guide online has migrated to a new location at www.pdsuppliersearch.com (it's easy to click from our home page). The new directory is powered by Kellysearch, the world's largest business-to-business search engine. We have incorporated the 2000 packaging suppliers from our Suppliers Guide into the 1.9 million companies on Kellysearch. More than 180,000 product categories make it easier for users to find what they need.

Kellysearch evolved from a U.K. business directory founded 100 years ago. In 2001, Kelly's Industrial Directory launched online, and in 2004, the site included the U.S. and Canada for the first time. Today, the online directory is available in English, of course, but also in German, Dutch and Japanese. You may not have heard of Kellysearch yet, but I assure you that your European colleagues have. More than 24 million individual searches are conducted there each month, and 93 percent of the users recommend Kellysearch to others they know. That's because the search engine is strictly business, and its very granular lexicon allows users to become extremely specific in their searches. Once a search term is entered, a long list of specifiers becomes available. From there, you can select companies, visit their company description, look at a catalog, e-mail a question to the company and even request a quote. Is location important to you? Click on the location and Kellysearch will narrow your search to companies that meet your criteria in a specific state.

Kellysearch vp Jim Mitchell tells an amusing anecdote about an encounter he had with a production engineer from Hershey, whose job it was to make sure the peanut butter got inside the Reese's Peanut Butter cups. Jim wanted to do a demonstration for the man so he asked what the engineer needed. “A pump,” he said. “Well,” answered Jim, “we can get very specific with this search. What kind of pump?” Actually, the engineer sheepishly answered, “a peanut butter pump.” Now that's getting very specific, thought Jim, but let's give it a test run. Sure enough, the search found two companies who make peanut butter pumps. Will your searches meet with the same success? Hard to say, but you won't do better anywhere else. Introduce yourself to Kellysearch's mole, Max, and get diggin'.