Pregis – Plymouth

Plymouth Facility Produces Quality Protective Packaging & Customer Service

Writer / Angela Cornell
Photographer Adam Calhoun 

Pregis is a name that few people know. Nonetheless, their products have been in almost every home in Michiana. Anyone who has ordered something online, purchased food ingredients or meal kits, or even bubble wrap or foam packaging from certain big-box stores in our area has used Pregis protective packaging. There’s also a high possibility that it was made in the Plymouth facility. 

“Anything that you think of like protective packaging — the scale is from anything from wadded up brown paper to bubble — really anything you can think of, we made that,” explains Ellie Meyers-Lloyd, the human resources generalist at Pregis. 

Pregis products are made from plastic resin pellets that are melted down and reformed into protective packaging that is then used on everything from food shipments to car bumpers. 

“Literally any application you can think of. We make any size bag from two inches all the way up to 64 inches,” says Plant Manager, Danny Dean. “You name it, we’re in about every industry.”

There are 14 plants in Pregis’s network. However, three things set the Plymouth location apart. One is its size — it is the largest plant in the network and has the capability to make any of the products available through Pregis.

The Plymouth Pregis also houses the customer service department and the sample department. 

“The sample department has every product that we make in what we call the protective packaging division,” Dean says. “That doesn’t exist anywhere else in the network.”

Some of Pregis’s most popular products include air cushioning packaging, like bubble wrap, air pillows, etc. as well as Dymo compatible labels and P.E. sheet foam, like foam rolls and pouches. These come in a variety of densities and colors, per their customer’s needs. Most of those customers are distributors. Also, check out this article about how the right candy bar packaging grab customers’ attention. 

“We manufacture the product, we send it to the distributor or a fabricator,” Dean says.

Just because Pregis works with plastics doesn’t mean that they don’t have sustainable business practices. 

“Sixty-five percent of all the products that we use, that we manufacture in Plymouth, are of recycled material,” Dean says. 

About 200,000 pounds of plastic waste from the plant gets re-pelletized and recycled into new Pregis materials every week. 

“A majority of the material that we reclaim comes right from the process that we put right back into it,” Dean adds. “Our options are either to scrap it out and send it to the dump or reclaim it and put it right back into the process, which is what we do.”

Approximately 240 people work at Pregis, and this business is always accepting applications. Their core values are integrity, customer focus, collaboration and innovation. They are one of the highest-paying employers in Plymouth and are known for their employer-employee loyalty, something that is a matter of great pride to the administration at the local plant. 

“We have more people that work in our facility who have more than five years than have less,” Dean says. “People come here and they stay here.”

Loyalty is a trait that spans all levels in the administration and the CEO himself keeps his managers accountable. 

“He never walks through the front door. He always walks in the back door. And he always asks the same question: ‘What has management done for you lately?’ He’s a super guy. He’s the reason I came here and the reason why I like to recruit my leadership team. It’s a great place to work,” Dean says.

For both Dean and Lloyd, the people on all levels make Pregis a fantastic place to work. 

“We try really hard to put the focus on being different and treating our employees different by doing not the normal — fancy little things,” Lloyd says. That includes lavish annual Christmas parties, sending bereavement gifts to employees when they lose a close family member, and more. 

“Those are not really the typical, normal everyday things that employers do, right? But we try really hard. It’s just an extra way to show that we appreciate them,” Lloyd says. 

To learn more about Pregis or to apply, check them out online at pregis.com or visit them at 1411 Pidco Dr. in Plymouth.