EVERETT — Lono Dickson hates Styrofoam peanuts. They remind him of the broken Styrofoam coolers he saw littering Hawaii, where he grew up.
Dickson, 39, brought both his disdain for Styrofoam and the Aloha spirit with him to Kalani Packaging, the Everett company that he and his wife, Shelly, began eight years ago. As the packaging industry trends toward green products, Dickson soon will put an end to offering those pesky plastic peanuts. With a tightening economy, he relies on the latter to forge strong customer ties.
“We put a little bit of Aloha into every box,” Dickson said. “That means putting in a little bit of extra effort.”
Kalani Packaging doesn’t always offer the lowest price, Dickson concedes. But Dickson believes his business competes with national packaging companies by offering things the larger companies can’t: speed, flexibility, a personal touch.
“We want to be competitive and service them better than they have ever been serviced before,” he said.
The van driver for Kalani Packaging isn’t just the deliverer of goods. He’s the salesman, expediter and returns person as well. With a nine-person staff, the small business has to be agile. Each employee is cross-trained to perform multiple jobs. And they’re expected to know and understand Kalani Packaging’s customers — from the Seattle Mariners to Starbucks to the local business that orders $100 worth of supplies.
“We just try to make it very easy to do business with us,” Dickson said.
Fluke’s Kathy McConville has ordered supplies from Kalani Packaging for the past few years. The proximity of the two companies makes it possible for McConville to scale back on the amount of labels and other packaging goods she stocks at Fluke.
“They were able to give us a quicker turnaround than anywhere else,” she said. “And they’re super-friendly.”
The Dicksons spent a couple of years hashing out ideas for starting a company before launching Kalani Packaging in 2000 out of their garage. Both had experience in the electronics industry but got a glimpse of the packaging industry’s potential while working part time for a now-defunct Seattle-based import company.
“One of the reasons we started our business was because we didn’t want to raise our children in day care,” he said.
And they don’t. Shelly Dickson gets their two children ready for school in the morning while Lono Dickson works. He arrives home by the time school lets out. “Our family is the most important thing that we have,” he said.
Shelly’s father, Harold Langseth, serves as Kalani Packaging’s director of the supply chain. The company’s solid relationship with its vendors ultimately allows Kalani Packaging to make good on its promises to customers.
The company expanded dramatically during the first five years of business — outgrowing three different warehouse sites. The Dicksons now seek more space. And they’ve branched out, opening a sales slot in Pennsylvania.
For a small business, Kalani Packaging has managed to snag some lucrative accounts: Starbucks, REI and Fluke. As a native Hawaiian, Lono Dickson and Kalani Packaging participate in the Northwest Minority Business Council.
“That opened the door for us,” Dickson said.
At a trade show for minority-owned businesses, a Starbucks buyer spotted Kalani Packaging. The coffee conglomerate gave the little-known packaging company the chance to bid on one product. That first deal led to a second and a third. Today, Kalani Packaging supplies all of Starbucks’ distribution centers, providing tapes, stretch film and other products.
Dickson conducts annual training sessions for Starbucks on packaging techniques. Properly covering a pallet in stretch wrap means less waste for the customer. While it also means fewer sales for Kalani Packaging, Dickson says it earns trust and builds partnerships.
Those partnerships allow Kalani Packaging to have influence over the types of products its customers buy. These days, persuading businesses not to buy Styrofoam peanuts makes both financial and environmental sense. Some large companies, such as REI and Starbucks, already are searching for ways to reduce their carbon footprints. One way they can do that is by decreasing their use of petroleum-based products. Companies are looking for biodegradable or compostable products.
“By all means, do not ship something to REI with Styrofoam peanuts — they will likely reject it,” Dickson told participants at a green conference for small firms in Everett last month.
So committed to environmentally practices is REI that it asks involved questions about paper-based packaging products.
“They want to know where the tree was cut down and how it was done,” Dickson said.
Sky-high oil prices make REI’s purchasing practices seem financially sound. Petroleum-based packaging products — ranging from plastic bags to tape to bubble wrap — are costing companies, and ultimately consumers, more money. Within two months, the cost of stretch film, used to wrap around and secure pallets, has increased not once, but three times.
Renewable paper products already have begun replacing plastic bubble wrap. Dickson estimates that Kalani Packaging can find a paper alternative in 80 to 90 percent of the applications that call for bubble wrap. The price of paper products is pretty stable, which additionally makes paper packaging attractive to companies.
“In the next five years, you as a consumer are going to see a drastic difference in packaging,” Dickson said.
Reporter Michelle Dunlop: 425-339-3454 or mdunlop@heraldnet.com.
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