American Packaging Opens Advanced Flexible Packaging Facility in Utah

American Packaging Corp. (APC) announced August 1 the grand opening of a new 275,000-square-foot Center of Excellence manufacturing facility in Cedar City, UT. The $100 million facility, which marks APC's sixth Center of Excellence across the US and its first on the west coast, is located at 1211 North 5300 West, Cedar City, UT 84721. We learned the Cedar City Center of Excellence will serve the western region of the US as well as Mexico and Canada.

"This is an exciting day for us at American Packaging Corporation and marks an important milestone in our company's history," says Peter Schottland, APC CEO and co-chairman of the board. "We couldn't be in a better community celebrating this expansion. Our Cedar City facility is expected to bring over a hundred new jobs to the area and we're heavily focused on partnerships and strong working relationships to ensure a fruitful addition to the Cedar City economy."

Claimed as one of the most modern and advanced flexible packaging facilities in the world, the strategically positioned Cedar City manufacturing facility shows APC's commitment to growth and investing in world-class print and packaging technologies to support customers' unique flexible packaging needs.

Advanced converting features stretch from prepress through online QC and pouchmaking.

Features at the fully operational plant include a state-of-the-art prepress, a proprietary flexographic printing ecosystem (HPE Flexo), adhesive laminating, and pouching equipment to deliver unique packaging solutions that not only preserves the integrity of the product, but ensures the product stands out on the shelf. APC has also invested in high-level automation, full web defect detection, and quality control capabilities that streamline operational efficiencies across APC's footprint to better serve new and existing customers.

According to Teri Meadow, APC director of corporate marketing,  the company engineers “triggers” into its capacity expansion models, along with strong equipment manufacturer engagement. This permits APC to quickly order, receive and install additional equipment to meet growing capacity demands. And it enhances APC’s capability to keep customer lead times in the preferred range of 4 to 8 weeks.

We also learned from Meadow that APC Cedar City offers a range of engineered packaging options comprising film, paper, foil, inks, adhesives, and coatings. These include both traditional and sustainable packaging offerings for both rollstock and a wide variety of preformed pouches.

Additionally, there are a variety of high-demand packaging features available to customers such as easy open and close options, registered matte and gloss coatings, perforations for breathability, and  others.

Meadow tells us customer markets served by the facility run the gamut of flexible packaging; for example, fresh produce, frozen foods, snacks, coffee and tea, dairy and cheese, liquids, personal care, and healthcare.

As part of the project's first phase of its expansion to Utah, APC hired 35 new team members and expects that number to reach 75 employees by the end of 2023. APC also transferred several experienced team members, including Robert Jamison from APC's Story City, IA, facility, to Utah as the Cedar City plant manager. APC anticipates bringing more than 135 quality career opportunities to Iron County in manufacturing, production, engineering, and administration with continued hiring and recruitment efforts underway.

"It's incredibly rewarding to see this project come to fruition," APC President Jeff Koch says. "APC is growing at a tremendous pace, due in part to the successful contributions of our trusted team, and we look forward to welcoming new team members and customers from the western market to the APC family."

After purchasing the land in October 2021, APC broke ground on the project in February 2022. The Cedar City facility is positioned well for trucking and rail transport, access to raw materials, and provides shipping efficiencies to customers in the western market.