Traco Packaging has a rich history stemmed in old fashioned values and work ethic. Nestled beneath the Wasatch Mountains, Traco Packaging has made the high desert of Utah home for over 35 years.

A division of Traco Manufacturing, Traco Packaging is a leading US packaging manufacturing company and importer of packaging equipment and shrink film products, providing customers with packaging equipment and supplies of all varieties. The brainchild of John Palica, an entrepreneur at heart, who was looking for a business opportunity when his professional baseball career came to an end due to injury, Traco Packaging was born.

Palica saw packaging as the ultimate opportunity, as people would always need and use packaging. What started out as a small operation distributing boxes, tape, and packing peanuts continued to grow as Palica maintained the mantra of “always say yes.” If a customer asked if he also supplied x, y, or z, he would say “yes” first, and then find a way to source the new items second.

The company trajectory significantly changed when Palica returned accounting software he had purchased to a large retailer. He learned that the box had to be shipped back to the supplier to be re-shrink-wrapped and then sent to the store again before being put back on the shelf. This tedious and prolonged process intrigued Palica and triggered him to design his Super Sealer product. This product would allow the store to shrink opened boxes and other products right in the store, avoiding the need to ship back to suppliers. Super Sealer customers then purchased their shrink films from Traco, and many continued to expand what they were purchasing from them as time went on.

As customers asked for more products, the company continued to expand their offerings and bring more capabilities in-house. Today, Traco Packaging offers a full suite of packaging products to their continually growing customer base.

Family values
Traco Packaging has always been owner-managed and rooted in family values. The name itself is a play on Palica’s wife Tracy’s name. Tracy’s Company became Traco, and Traco Packaging emerged.

Owen Power joined the company in 2015 and is now the president and CEO. Power felt it was important to carry on the vision and traditions started by Palica, but also to ensure that employees had a reason “why.”

Power felt employees, including himself, needed a sense of purpose to drive them. As he reflected on this, the concept of “Significantly Improve the Quality of Life of Others” arose. According to Power, “I wanted to develop a culture where people had a greater reason to come to Traco than just the paycheck.”

Traco’s 125 employees embody this motto in all that they do. Putting out a high-quality product certainly plays a role, but the internal company culture embodies this as well. Traco’s employee of the month program focuses on employees recognizing colleagues for improving the quality of life of others and most often is not based on someone getting the job done. Typically, people are recognized for going above and beyond outside the walls of Traco to help fellow employees, customers or the community.

Capabilities for all packaging challenges
Today, Traco Packaging resides in a 50,000 square-foot facility that houses two flexographic presses, a 26” Gidue and 17” Nilpeter. The company is also proud to have the latest digital technology with three HP Indigo digital presses, including an HP Indigo 6900. The 6900 features the newest ink technology for digital – metallics, neons, black light, and invisible inks – features that were not possible for digital before the introduction of the 6900 to the market.

In addition to its press equipment, the company has a variety of finishing equipment to support its customers’ needs. Pouch converting equipment includes a laminator, slitter, and pouching machine. Traco also has numerous seaming, inspecting, cutting, bag, and finishing machines.

With both flexographic and digital capabilities, Traco Packaging produces labels, shrink wrap, tamper evident shrink bands, multi-packs, and supplies other packaging essentials for a variety of vertical markets, including beverage, nutraceutical, pet, cosmetics, and more.

The company has a very broad customer base, mainly due to its expansive product offering. From supporting local mom and pops to national CPG brands, Traco looks at all of their customers the same way. According to Power, “A customer is a customer, whether they represent a small operation or a large multinational brand. At the end of the day, they all want the same thing from us: attention, a good quality product, and speed of delivery.”

All-star team delivers
Traco is a people-driven organization. Since most of Traco’s work is custom, automating processes is difficult, and having the right people on the team is imperative. The company has not avoided the labor challenges that most in our industry have faced since 2020, however, its strong company culture has made Traco a highly desired employer. It supports its employees by assisting in higher education costs and promoting from within whenever possible, and most employees are cross-trained to do multiple jobs within the facility. As a company, Traco rewards and celebrates successes creating a great team mentality.

Traco Packaging hasn’t lost the “can do” attitude that Palica had when he started the company all those years ago. They rarely say no and are typically able to figure out a solution for their customers. Customers consider Traco a great partner and know they can come to them for solutions and a level of support not many others offer.

FLAG membership
Traco Packaging is a relatively new FLAG member, having joined just before the 2022 Annual Meeting. When Power became CEO in June of 2021, he felt that he needed to learn more about the business and the industry. He began looking for organizations that would help him to learn and become more connected in the industry, and he wanted a group that was engaged with their members and would provide value to the organization.

Traco Packaging found that with FLAG. They began seeing rebates almost immediately and were impressed with the vendor partners and how well they met the needs of Traco and other converter members.

Power claims that he was blown away by the other converter members and how open everyone was to discussing problems, challenges and sharing solutions. Even though they are competitors, he feels that the other converter members are all willing to share ideas and solutions with one another.

After visiting fellow FLAG member Lofton Label’s facility at the annual meeting in Minneapolis, Power immediately volunteered to participate as the host Member for the 2023 Annual Meeting. He is excited to share Traco Packaging with the other members and hopes that with their broad capabilities they can introduce other Members to things that they aren’t providing to their customers today. According to Power, “My hope is that as members, we can work together to make us all great.”

Traco Packaging will host the Annual Member Tour at the FLAG Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT, from April 18-21, 2023.