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Hanko Kiessner is founder and chief executive officer of Packsize International LLC, a
privately held on-demand packaging manufacturing and technology company. A native
of Germany, Kiessner studied at the University of Utah, where he earned undergraduate
and graduate business degrees.
Kiessner’s packaging roots run deep. His father first introduced corrugated material into
the European market in 1969 as part of a family business founded in 1872. The younger
Kiessner started to experiment with newly patented corrugated converting machines. He
relocated to Salt Lake City and founded Packsize in 2002, positioning the company to
provide converting machines, materials, engineering services, and technical support as a
complete turnkey solution with no equipment purchase required. He sought to achieve
sustainable operations early on and continues to be a strong advocate for the reduction,
re-use, and recycling of packaging materials.
He recently spoke with DC VELOCITY Editorial Director David Maloney.
Hanko Kiessner
of Packsize
THROWN AWAY AFTER ITS INITIAL USE. HOW
DO YOU CHANGE THAT MINDSET?
A: Most people don’t realize that corrugated is the most sustainable and affordable
packaging choice on the market today. In
2018, 96% of all corrugated produced in
the U.S. was recovered for recycling, and
the average corrugated box contained 50%
recycled content. Think of this in comparison to plastic, which generally ends up in
a landfill, as 91% of all of the plastic ever
created has never been recycled.
Q: I SEE THE SUSTAINABILITY BENEFITS OF
USING ECO-FRIENDLY PACKAGING, BUT WHAT
ARE THE FINANCIAL BENEFITS?
A: The CFO is the one who can track all
of the savings and benefits that a right-sized package made on demand is able to
deliver. If there is less material, there is
less material cost. Eliminating filler material equates to even more savings. Fully
automated packaging activities can bring
80% to 90% savings in labor costs. To
ship a perfect package is significantly less
expensive because it weighs less and has
less cube. All of this results in tremendous
savings. ;
Q: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE PACKSIZE
TO SOMEONE NOT FAMILIAR WITH YOUR
COMPANY?
A: Packsize enables the packaging of
any product in the right-sized box, either through a fully or
semi-automated solution combined with advanced software.
Think of your online ordering experience. You order something
and often receive it in a box that’s too large and stuffed with excessive filling material, which you then have to recycle. If the retailer
or manufacturer had used Packsize, your order would have arrived
in a right-sized box that was about 40% smaller on average than
the ones typically used.
Q: HOW DO YOU VIEW THE CURRENT MARKET FOR PACKAGING?
A: Retailers are looking for new ways to streamline their supply
chain—packaging is at the forefront. Our research indicates that
the number-one customer complaint about e-commerce is excessive packaging. There are 5. 8 million tons of paper that are used to
make boxes that are too large.
A second factor is cost. All this waste is costing a lot of money, so
on average, between 20% and 25% of packaging and packaging-re-lated expenses can be saved.
A third factor is a lack of labor resources. The perfect packaging
is now available with zero labor, and fully automated systems can
make up to 1,200 boxes per hour. Those are efficiency gains that
companies can no longer overlook.
Q: MOST PEOPLE THINK OF CORRUGATED AS SOMETHING THAT’S JUST
In our continuing series
of discussions with top
supply-chain company
executives, Hanko Kiessner
discusses the advantages
of right-sized packaging.
