Packing Firm Concept Supply Thinks Outside The Box

By JAMES BEACH

Concept Supply Inc. officially pays the bills by selling smart packaging and marking supplies. Unofficially, it is in the business of miracles.

Need to pack a life-sized giraffe made out of porcelain and send it across the country? Concept Supply feasts on such situations.

"Anyone can sell packaging supplies. We provide solutions. I guess you could say we think out of the box for what goes in the box," said Dick Lindeman, president and chief executive officer of the local company.

Perhaps Concept Supply specializes in miracle packaging because it has had a few brushes with miracles of its own.

Three months after buying the company in July 1999, Mr. Lindeman watched a three-alarm fire come tantalizingly close to sending his new company up in a blaze of smoke and fire.

When a massive fire in October ravaged the building on Duncan Avenue where Concept Supply's offices were located, virtually every surrounding office was destroyed. Concept Supply escaped with minimal smoke damage and was back in business the next day.

"We sat there and watched office after office burning to the ground, and we started praying. The fire was headed right for our offices, when out of nowhere the wind changed and started blowing the fire the other way," said Mr. Lindeman.

"You could see the flames leaping over the fire wall separating our office from the blaze. When the wind changed, we were able to talk the firemen into not dousing everything on our side with water. They put nearly 10 million gallons of water on that firewall, but we didn't have any water damage and very little smoke damage to our office. It was truly a miracle," said Mr. Lindeman.

Some will say everything about this business and the events leading up to and since Mr. Lindeman's ownership of it have been nothing short of a miracle.

The company began in 1964 as a locally owned packaging supply firm named Brown Shipping Products, and later became Marsh Tennessee Co. A corrugated company and die company were added in the 1970s under the Marsh Tennessee umbrella.

It was purchased by Concept Packaging, a national packaging company based in Spartanburg, S.C., in 1997, and Mr. Lindeman was appointed general manager of Concept's operations in Chattanooga.

Shortly after that, Mr. Lindeman was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and anticipating eventual problems he might have with a job which required him to be on his feet constantly, he went to the company owner to talk about it.

The owner came back with this solution: why not buy the supply part of the company and run it himself.

"I'd always harbored the dream of owning my own business, and it took me getting sick for it to work out. It was truly a blessing from God. Even though we're an independent company, we kept the name Concept because of the relationship we have with them," said Mr. Lindeman.

The two companies even share a warehouse in the Bonny Oak Industrial Centre off Volunteer Drive. Concept Packaging makes the boxes many companies use to ship their products. Mr. Lindeman's operation sells everything from ways to seal t he boxes to the packaging inside which keeps the product unharmed and the marking outside the boxes which identifies them, labels them and helps ship them.

"We don't just sell a bunch of bubble wrap. We sell ideas. We focus on solutions to problems. The great thing about it is, that products might change, but you still have to package and ship them," said Mr. Lindeman.

The company deals with a whole range of customers, from walk-ins off the street to Fortune 500 firms like General Electric and Maytag.

"We've got a tremendous staff here, and we strive to treat everyone the same. If you walk in and have to send a package, we have people who can devise a way to package it. And the big companies know what they're going to get with us because of our long established reputation," said Mr. Lindeman, who notes an increase in walk-ins at the new location.

"Through the advent of technology we can compete and get the bigger company accounts, but because we're small and locally owned, we still maintain the advantages that gives us. It's the best of both worlds," said Mr. Lindeman.

A little over six months now after buying the company, Mr. Lindeman has seen it outshine all his forecasts. The company has added to its sales force, and expects to grow business 10 to 12 percent this year.

Mr. Lindeman thinks the company will double its current worth of about $4 million within the next five years.

"It's a competitive business and in order to survive, you have to be creative, innovative and provide cost-effective solutions to the customers' individual packaging needs," said Connie Edge, the company's co-owner and vice president. Ms. Edge has been with the company since 1975, and has been the stabilizing force in the transition, according to Mr. Lindeman.

"We're all like a family here anyway, and what each of us does reflects on the other," said Mr. Lindeman.

In other words, at Concept Supplies Inc., what goes in a box is a lot more than a bunch of foam peanuts.