Englander Offers A Total Package

When Marty Englander’s father started the business that still bears the family name back in 1967, he did so based on a belief in one overriding principle.

“He didn’t know anything about boxes at the time he started selling them,” Englander said of his father, Louie, “but he knew how to take care of people.”

Fast-forward more than 40 years and Marty Englander remains committed to doing the same. Englander is the CEO of Englander dZignPak LLC, a company that specializes in packaging, display and graphic merchandising solutions.

EnglanderDZP (previously known as Englander Container and Display) stepped up its presence in the Northwest Arkansas market almost a year ago via its acquisition of Stribling Packaging and Display and its Juiced Creative division. Englander’s focus on taking care of its clients remains intact.

“That’s kind of the foundation that our company is built on, and that’s what I think this market wants,” Englander said. “The difference between us today and maybe [1967] is we take care of people and we believe we know what we’re doing.”

The proof is on paper, in the form of revenue growth. Englander took over as CEO in 2002, and was instrumental in implementing a plan to make the family business a $50 million company by 2015.

“In 2001, we were about $12 million in revenue, and we’re about triple that right now,” Englander said. “We’re pushing $40 million.”

 

Texas Roots

Englander’s roots – as a company and a family – are in Texas, a fact its CEO jokingly said he’s hesitant to publicize in Arkansas. Englander’s family started in the paper recycling business in Waco, Texas, where it owned Sunbright Waste Paper Co., nearly a century ago. His father shifted its emphasis by forming Englander Container in 1967.

Englander, 44, grew up working summers for his father and learning the business in the process. Even a degree in advertising from the University of Texas wasn’t enough to steer him away from joining his father.

 “I had completely different thoughts of what I was going to do,” Englander said, “but when I started to get close to graduation, my dad is someone I’ve always been real close to and if there was someone I was going to learn from, that’s who I wanted it to be.”

By the time he assumed a leadership position and set that $50 million goal, Englander was convinced it would take a combination of organic growth and acquisition to achieve it. First came expansions into the San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth markets.

The result was enhanced structural and graphic design departments, expanded graphics packaging and display capabilities, and additional sales and distribution locations. Along the way, in about 2004, the company added a large-format digital printer, “which was pretty new technology at that time,” Englander said.

Then, in 2006, Englander moved to Fort Worth after the purchase of a prototyping company. Next came the 2009 purchase of Sonntag, a Carrollton, Texas-based banner and in-store marketing company with large-format digital and screen printing capabilities.

“That broadened our mix beyond corrugated packaging and displays,” Englander said, “and brought complementary items to the corrugated display world including floor graphics, window graphics, signs and banners.”

 

‘One-Stop Shop’

Englander was content with the progress at that point, and said he had no immediate plans for expansion before the Stribling opportunity presented itself. Both parties were familiar with each other from years of doing business.

Englander said acquiring certain pieces of Stribling’s enterprise “was a good opportunity for us to broaden our presence, make it more regional and national in a lot of ways.”

“The fact that we can have corrugated packaging, flexo printing, litho, digital and screen capabilities – basically all under one umbrella and one roof – that was a pretty good thing to bring into this market,” he added.

Then, in January, Englander announced its plan to merge with dZignPak, another Carollton-based company. The two currently are working under a joint operating agreement, and the deal is expected to close any day, according to Englander.

The result is a company that employs about 200 people – 23 in Northwest Arkansas – and is making a big push in the local vendor market. Its capabilities make it what vice president of sales in Northwest Arkansas Lance Nutt deemed “a one-stop shop.”

“Not only is it high-end packaging and a high-end display,” Nutt said, “it’s literally from the ceiling to the floor.”

Put another way, EnglanderDZP makes both the packaging to get products from a warehouse to store shelves and the displays and other point-of-sale materials to grab customers’ attention. It does so by printing on both small- and large-scale formats, and on practically any kind of substrate.

 That kind of production and service appears to be a good fit in a place where suppliers are battling for strongholds in Wal-Mart stores.

“The need when it comes to so many Wal-Mart suppliers is you’re dealing with marketing teams,” Nutt said. “You’re typically not dealing with purchasing agents or managers, so their experiences and desires in developing relationships with the Wal-Mart buyers and Wal-Mart teams in general is putting that pretty face on the presentation of their products in Wal-Mart stores.

“They’re looking for impact. How do we launch that new product? How do we impress the buyer, and ultimately the consumer, to approach, grab, pick up and purchase our item?

“They don’t have the time to waste searching for solutions. If they can go to one company and get it resolved to where they can focus on meeting the expectations and high demands of Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart buyers, it enables them to focus on that.”

Georgia Ziegler, senior buyer and materials manager at Daisy Outdoor Products, said she did business with Stribling before EnglanderDZP came to the area, and she’s been pleased with the transition. Ziegler said EnglanderDZP most recently designed some pallets and also the packaging for a gun that will be sold at the renovated Walmart Visitor Center in Bentonville.

Asked if there had been any hiccups at all, she said, “Absolutely none.”

“Responsiveness is a big thing that scores points with me … and a lot of our requests are at once-type things,” Ziegler said. “The majority of the time, they meet our needs.”

 

What’s Next?

Englander said the presence of Wal-Mart and its suppliers was “obviously a big part” of the decision to expand, but there’s more to it than that.

“I think the thing that attracted me was two-fold,” Englander said. “One, there’s a number of folks you can just drive down the street and find that you wouldn’t normally be able to do.

“Probably more than anything, though, we thought it would be a good opportunity. We felt that we bring something different to the market in how we operate, what our capabilities are, and thought this was a pretty good environment to introduce it into.”

Like a lot of suppliers who have moved to Northwest Arkansas, Englander also has been pleasantly surprised by the quality of life it offers. He spends about two weeks of every month here and doesn’t see that changing in the foreseeable future.

“I started out wanting to come up here just from a business standpoint, but I’ve really enjoyed it,” Englander said. “It’s a nice community to get to know.

“People are warm, probably first and foremost.”

That’s helped ease the sting of being away from his wife, Marilyn, and their two teenage daughters. Englander’s affection for the area also has led him to pursue a variety of community involvement options.

He’s a longtime supporter of Big Brothers Big Sisters, among other groups, and Nutt is the driving force behind Sheep Dog Impact Assistance, a group that deals in disaster preparedness and assistance.

Nutt said Englander’s eagerness to become part of the community instead of simply someone who’s invested here is a reflection not just of who he is as a businessman, but as a person.

“He’s come up here and said, ‘You know what? I want to learn what it’s going to take for us to be successful in Northwest Arkansas. … He’s not come in here and said, ‘This is the way we’ve been successful. This is the way we’re going to do it,'” Nutt said.

“You can’t ask for more out of an owner than that.”