Berlin Packaging to add 100 employees in 25 cities
Berlin Packaging, a supplier of plastic, glass, and metal containers and closures with operations in Bolingbrook, announced it would hire 100 employees at offices in 25 metropolitan areas by the end of 2015.
Half of the new hires will be sales consultants, increasing the company's 120-person sales force by 40 percent. The other half will include support staff such as customer service specialists, buyers, warehousing personnel and package designers. Postings for open positions are on BerlinPackaging.com and the company's page on LinkedIn.
The initiative marks the company's fourth and largest mass hiring program in the last five years. It is designed to take advantage of major opportunities in the $50 billion U.S. rigid packaging market. Berlin's annual revenues approach $900 million. That includes revenue growth over the past decade that is eight times higher than the overall packaging market and organic growth that is more than four times that of the market, the company said in a release.
The company's good performance led Oak Hill Capital Partners to acquire a majority stake in Berlin Packaging in October for $1.43 billion. Oak Hill invested in partnership with Berlin Packaging's management team to help drive the next stage of the company's growth.
"We started hiring new personnel en masse in 2009 to accelerate our growth and increase our market share. This recruitment strategy, which we call Wolfpack, has already almost doubled the size of our sales force in five years and has made a major contribution to our growth since we initiated it," said Chairman and CEO Andrew Berlin. "Our representatives in Washington have had a hard time reinvigorating the economy. So we are investing in our own company and sponsoring our own 'jobs bill.' Our new resources will be a win-win-win - for our customers, our suppliers, and Berlin Packaging overall."
"This new Wolfpack will take us to the next level," said Rick Brandt, Berlin's executive vice president of sales. "Our expanded team will be able to reach even more packaging buyers and help them be more successful with our broad, cost-effective offering and suite of services."
Hiring has already begun and will continue through 2015. For sales representatives, the company is seeking smart, creative, driven people with sales experience and a demonstrated track record of landing new customers. For inside support positions, the company seeks smart multi-taskers with a strong customer-service mindset.
Once this new group of employees has been hired and trained, the company expects to launch a follow-on initiative to hire even more employees.