Business

Lots of familiar packages printed in East Flat Rock

Packaging for many well-known products is printed at AGI-Shorewood Group plant in East Flat Rock.

By Bill Moss, Published: July 24, 2013

EAST FLAT ROCK — Consumers know the products instantly. It's a safe bet that few buyers know the packages are printed in East Flat Rock, N.C. — and most people here don't know it.

Boxes that contain a medicine chest of instantly recognizable national brands are printed in East Flat Rock. The company was rebranded ASG, for AGI-Shorewood Group, when it merged with AGI (www.asg-worldwide.com). The Shorewood plant is less known than better names like GE's outdoor lighting plant, which is next door.
But the products printed at Shorewood are at least as well known as GE light bulbs: Colgate, Sensodyne, Oragel, Flintstone vitamins. The eye-catching covers of Hollywood DVDs are made there. So are CD box set covers.
And the companies that want their products to pop off the shelf and into the shopping basket are particular about the color, the reproduction and the overall look — very particular. That's where Shorewood shines.
The company recently became the first U.S. packaging plant to achieve a seal of approval called Pantone Certification. Pantone is a global authority on color and a provider of professional color standards for design industries.
"The purpose of the Pantone Certification is to be able to give the customer brand consistency across all materials," said plant manager Bob Lennon, who is also ASG's vice president for supply chain.
To keep the Pantone certification, the plant submits samples and is subject to an audit. The Pantone seal of approval means a lot in a world of vitamin, toothpaste or aspirin makers that sell tens of millions of units a year.
"We can go to the buyer and let them know that if you get this from any of our plants it will have this quality," Lennon said.
The plant's graphics, prepress and press spent six to eight months working on the certification.
"We're the second major printing company in the U.S. to do this," Lennon said.
AGI-Shorewood is a global company that makes specialized packaging for home entertainment, health care, beauty, consumer electronics, confectionery and specialty foods, spirits, sporting goods and other products. It employ 3,000 people and operates 19 printing and plastics manufacturing plants in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America, and has creative services offices in the U.S., Britain, France, China and Australia.
The East Flat Rock plant has risen to the top with its attention to detail and apparent sharp eye for color. It survives and thrives in an age of outsourcing because it produces the packaging consumer products companies demand and it's close to the markets where products are sold.
"It's more about quality, security of the supply chain and consistency," Lennon said.
The plant runs around the clock, and is just starting to ramp up for the busy July-through-February run of orders.
"We're getting ready to get into a lot of consumer business so that will go up as well," plant facilitator Caroline Counts said.