Owner
Kansas City, Ks, Us
Prior to purchasing Central Packaging, John Swearingen and I knew one another at the University of Missouri where I majored in Economics and John studied Finance. After college, I went on to work at Scott Paper and International Paper in sales, sales management and marketing. John attained a Masters Degree in Business Administration and then joined the family business. Since the 1940′s, John’s family made Levi’s Jeans for Levi Strauss & Co. As Levi Strauss outsourced fabrication of its products overseas, the family business came to an end in 1998.In 1999, John and I reconnected at a University of Missouri football game (Go Tigers!) where we discussed our similar goals and noted our complimentary backgrounds. Shortly after, we purchased Union Tape, a small distributor, in 1999. We changed the name to reflect our goals, and added packaging product lines to go along with the tape business. In 2005, we acquired Pro Pack and changed the company name to Central Packaging. The acquisition and merger increased our purchasing and selling power. The business grew from 2 to 15 people over 20 years while John and his family ran the back office operations out of Sedalia, MO. and Linda and our team ran the operations and sales out of Kansas City, including a 50,000-sq.-ft. warehouse.I attribute a portion of Central Packaging’s success to the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program (founded by Barnett Helzberg), an organization of seasoned business owners that provided me with a variety of valuable contacts with like-minded business owners.After a 20 year business relationship, Central Packaging merged with B2B Industrial Packaging in 2019 allowing John and I to close the books on a high note. Central Packaging enjoyed year over year growth 19 of 20 years. The succession plan is allowing employees to gain more vacation, better benefits and ability to earn more with B2B Industrial Packaging. Our Clients are benefiting from a range of more services.
