Business View Magazine | December 2018

76 77 KenoshaArea BusinessAlliance’s newbusiness park inTrevor.With the newbuilding inWisconsin comes neweight-color printing capabilities,new clean room facilities,newpouching and bag- ging equipment,and an upgrading of its quality certifications that includes ISO9001 2015.“It was important to us that we didn’t lose anyof our associates with themove,”adds Smith.“We have a very technical workforce,soweweren’t interested in going too far and losing anyof our employees.” Serving national and international customers, Vonco’s largest market is healthcare-related, producing fluid pouches and bags for themed- ical andmedical-device companies that have to collect fluid frompeople (and animals) or send fluids into bodies.Vonco’s second largest market is general retail,being the providers of lower-vis- cosity,fluid-based food,like the applesauce and baby food found in supermarkets,or cleaning chemicals onemight find in hardware stores. Animal health products,alone,include packaging for food,nutritional supplements,specimen col- lection,pharmaceuticals,and other animal care products. Some of Vonco’s product development suc- cesses include: liquid tight seals,customshaped bags,multi-compartment bags,95kPa biohazard transport bags,stockand customspecimen col- lection bags,stock securitymailers,stockevidence propertybags,customstand-up pouches with optional spouts,bag-in-boxpackaging,vat liners, boil-in bags,and various promotional items. As one of the fewmakers of unsupported polyolefin bags and pouches,Vonco has an edge over themajorityof manufacturers who still use PVC,which has various downside risks.Within the food sector,Vonco’s flexible plasticpackages VONCO PRODUCTS, LLC also stackup favorablyagainst thosematerials that usemore energy to fabricate,and take upmore space, weighmore,or aremore subject to breakage,such as glass,aluminum,and rigid plastics. To counter concerns about plastics in general,and various national initiatives and regulatorypressures to reduce,limit,and even ban certain plasticproducts and containers,Smith draws a distinction between prima- rypackaging,such as theirs,versus secondaryplastic packaging,like shopping bags or food take-out cartons. “Evenwithout recyclability,whichwe areworking on for our own products,our flexible polyolefin packaging still has a lower footprint compared to other materials,” hemaintains.In addition,Vonco is striving to demon- strate leadership in recyclability through the use of linear low-densitypolyethylene (LLDPE). Smith credits the company’s success to fast custom development and turnaround compared to other packaging suppliers.“Our customers can come to our design center or we can go on site,”he states.“Our Liqualocdesigner bag service can produce four or five sample prototypes,based on keycriteria,within 72 hours.We can then test shape,structure,dimensionals, and filling features,immediately.That,plus strong qual- itycontrol and a 100-percent,leakproof guarantee for a period of one year following purchase,gives us the edge.”Vonco also holds patents onmanyof its packag- ing concepts.