Nosco, Inc., a subsidiary of Holden Industries, Inc., recently began carton and label production at its new 175,000 sq ft Packaging Innovation Center in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. The facility expands Nosco’s efforts in printed packaging with continued focus on quality, innovation and growth for the healthcare industry. It consolidates existing regional packaging operations to allow for redundant capabilities for carton and label production, an enhanced customer and employee experience with all service departments on-site and facility optimization and automation efforts.
Through this new facility, Nosco will continue to serve the pharmaceutical, natural health, personal care, snack/confectionery and CPG markets. To do so, multiple presses, die-cutters and gluers were installed to support over $40m in carton work. The company has also installed HP Indigo digital printing equipment to support its label product line.
“We recently began production, printing pharmaceutical folding cartons on our Bobst Expertfold 110,” said Craig Curran, President, Nosco (pictured left). “We also started producing labels using two new HP Indigo 6K Label machines. Moving forward, the Pleasant Prairie facility will be home to production for all label and carton orders placed hereafter that were historically produced at Nosco’s Gurnee and Waukegan (Illinois) facilities, respectively.”
The Packaging Innovation Center and headquarters building will consolidate much of the company’s northern Illinois workforce, which will allow for supply chain efficiency and operational flow and additional training and development opportunities. Furthermore, the new facility is equipped with a Customer Innovation Center to support packaging development work. This area is staffed with engineering and graphics teams to support structural and graphic design for new product development and launches.
Quality, Innovation, Growth
The new Center in Wisconsin will be home to nearly 300 of Nosco’s 700+ employee owners. All other staff will operate out of existing facilities in Illinois, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania.
Curran presented additional details about the quality, innovation and growth initiatives:
- Quality – the harmonized quality system will remain in place across all facilities, including Pleasant Prairie. To assist with audits and tours, and provide a one-of-a-kind customer viewing experience, the Packaging Innovation Center will feature an observatory bridge overlooking all production activities.
- Innovation – CAD and Solutions Engineering teams will continue to enhance customer packaging with sustainable material options, substrate and ink recommendations, structural design expertise and more. To promote new product development and team collaboration, both teams will now work together with customers out of the facility’s fully-integrated Customer Innovation Hub, alongside their state-of-the-art MakerSpace.
- Growth – through the increased facility space and long-term lease, Nosco is positioned to support expanded capacity and future growth goals. This growth potential will also allow the company to create many new jobs in Kenosha County. The facility’s proximity to the Chicago and Milwaukee metro areas will be critical in recruiting top talent to expand the employee ownership team.
“Nosco continues to lead as a premier provider of printed packaging. Our decision to consolidate our workforce into this new world-class facility is a true testament to our people and our customers,” said Curran. “Through this critical expansion effort, we will continue our commitment to quality and service – supporting customer orders in a seamless and timely matter.”
Audits of the new facility began in late July, and the full grand opening is slated for fall of 2021.
Nosco is a full-service packaging solutions provider serving over 400+ customers in the healthcare space. With more than 110 years of experience, the company brings together business resources and technical expertise to better understand packaging challenges and deliver customized solutions. The company focuses on service to help continuously improve efficiencies related to supply chain, cycle times, lean initiatives and product launches.
The company is 100% employee owned and specializes in printed packaging for four core product lines: cartons, labels, inserts and flexible packaging.
