CEO Chris Dillon / Meyers

https://meyers.com/

What sustainable innovations is Meyers working on? 
How can we switch some items from plastic to paper? 

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Transcript

Cory Connors: 0:15

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. Today's guest is my friend, Mr. Chris Dillon, the CEO of Meyers How are you,

Chris Dillon: 0:23

sir? I'm doing great, Corey. Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Cory Connors: 0:26

It's it's great to be here with you. we've been friends a long time and, met at all kinds of events, but I'm excited to hear about your background. Can you tell us, where you came from and what

Chris Dillon: 0:37

got you here? Yeah, I will. And I won't go too far back, but, yeah, so I've been. with Meyers for a little bit over 22 years at this point in a variety of different roles. and I started really honestly at the very entry level while I was still a student, at the University of Minnesota. And, what can I say? I, I've been very fortunate, in my career. I've worked my way up through the ranks, and gotten to the point where I get to carry the torch for the company. So it's amazing. Fun ride.

Cory Connors: 1:03

I like to hear that kind of a story because, I'm the same. I started at a production facility as, with the illustrious title of miscellaneous worker.

Chris Dillon: 1:12

Oh, really? That's outstanding. Yeah.

Cory Connors: 1:14

Yeah. Weyerhaueser corrugated box plant back in 1996. Oh my gosh. It's been that long. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, what led you to this business? This is part of your family, right? If I

Chris Dillon: 1:27

recall. It is. So, yeah, so my grandfather, Gerald Dillon, Jerry Dillon started the business, actually purchased the business back in 1949, and it was a very small company at that point. Right. And, so that's all the way back and, I never got the opportunity to know my grandfather as an adult, right? I knew him as a kid and he was great, but you know, you just, he's one of those guys that I wish I got to know more as an adult, right? Cause the more stories that I hear about them, about him and the way that he worked with people and treated people fairly, he really had a focus on helping. People, employees, to build better lives for them and their families. And, always about doing the right thing. And so there's a lot of stories about him and, it's really an honor for me to be in a position to be able to carry that legacy on, with the business. So. That's

Cory Connors: 2:13

really cool. I, I did a bunch of, cold calls yesterday with our new rookie, Derek. And, he is amazing. I was talking about my grandpa, the same as you just were about how he would engage with you when he talked to you in a way that made you feel like there's no one else in the world. Yep. All he cares about is what you have to say next. Yep. and if I learned even 5% of that, I'm totally thrilled and

Chris Dillon: 2:38

honored. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Sounds like we have similar experience that way. Yeah.

Cory Connors: 2:43

Well, tell us about Myers. what do you produce there? What, how big of a company is it? Stuff like that.

Chris Dillon: 2:49

Yeah. So Myers, we have a little over 200 employees. We do about 70 million in revenue. and we're focused on sustainable packaging and labels. we also do a point of purchase displays and we even, it's probably the less relevant on your show here, but we even get into a printed electronics, which we do a little bit differently than. And most people, so that's a, another product line of ours. And, so anyway, we're, we're a third generation, family owned business. we like to think of ourselves as kind of a, it's a term that we use a Goldilocks size company, right. Sort of just right. we're large enough as an organization to really deliver for some of the largest brands, but we're also, small enough to really care and, have our customers feel that kind of personal attention. that's something that we really, pride ourselves on. So I like

Cory Connors: 3:36

that Goldilocks company. I'm going to use that.

Chris Dillon: 3:40

There's no trademark on that yet.

Cory Connors: 3:42

Maybe that's the next step, right? Yeah. We'll see. I like that. Well, let's talk a little bit more about that thing. You didn't want to talk about the electronic things. You print on a, on circuit boards.

Chris Dillon: 3:56

or sort of, yeah, so we talk about that, there's, I would say, yeah, there's, so some of the products that we do, I'm not at liberty to talk about because they're on their NDA, et cetera, but one that I think I can mention, I'm about to mention, you've actually got their, their sign there behind you. if you're in the unfortunate position to find yourself in a, in a. a scenario where you've got an EKG monitor, maybe it's preventive and it's not a bad thing, but we actually print the conductive leads, that go on those, EKG monitors. Right. And that was that was our, one of our early projects that we took on and we've since expanded that into some, some other areas, aerospace adjacent, right. That, and there's just a ton of growth that. should be happening there in the years to come. So,

Cory Connors: 4:37

Oh, cool. That's neat. Yeah. people don't think about a lot of this, medical, supplies and things like that, that, that are just used in procedures and, the medical packaging industry is, really, its own animal. And I'm struggling to find sustainable packaging because all of it is, well, almost all of it is single use. It's all, clean room or medical grade, which is even, more difficult sometimes. So, yeah, that's something we've talked about quite a bit on the show, but that's so cool that we can look down at, at our chest if we're getting one of those and say, Oh, that maybe that's from Chris. Yeah.

Chris Dillon: 5:16

Probably. Yeah, it's neat. Yeah.

Cory Connors: 5:19

What's so being a family business? I know, some of your family members work there. what's the best part of

Chris Dillon: 5:25

that? Yeah. I mean, there's a lot. I mean, if I'm honest, but you know, if I had to If I had to narrow it down to what's the best part, right? I mean, I would say that it's probably just the independence that we have to focus on a mission that's set by our family, right. as opposed to having to answer to financial owners, which, they have a place that's great, but there's a sense of independence that we have. and, so our company mission is, is to create a better future for people, products, and our planet. And that's something that we get to really, follow closely and think about, every step of the way. and, so that's probably my favorite part of having a family business. Also, it's kind of cool to have a family business just as a family thing. It's like, stuff can come up every once in a while, or there's, a little bit of, Thanksgiving dinner, stuff, arguments, if you will, but actually for the most part, it's, it really helps bring the family together. And it's a lot of fun. my cousin, Michael, who I work very closely with in the business, he, I, since he joined the business have been, we get to see each other every day. I mean, how cool is that? What

Cory Connors: 6:28

an honor, what a fun experience. Michael was one of my first podcast guests about a year and a half ago. Yep. So give him my best when you see him. I sure will. Yeah. Grow. Growing up, my dad, went through quite a few jobs, mostly in sales related roles, but he also owned a company, called Apollo Marine for a while, and really, Me and my brothers, would help in the warehouse. And, I remember that even as a young child, probably not, wouldn't be allowed to do this today, but assembling parts and, we used to drive around the hand truck together and stuff like that, but after hours, of course, but it was fun. you're right. It's fun to have a family business and be a part of that.

Chris Dillon: 7:11

Yeah, for sure.

Cory Connors: 7:12

For sure. Well, you've, Myers, I should say, has made some huge steps forward to more sustainable packaging options. can you talk to a couple of those projects

Chris Dillon: 7:22

or maybe one? Yeah. so, a few of them, one recent one that comes to mind is a product that we did, for Ulta. it's a purse spray, right? And, Being maybe not the target audience for that. I'm thinking like, why do people spray things in their purse? Well, no, it's like a perfume or a EDT, I think, as they call it. and so they had been doing it. they had a pearlescent finish to it. And the way they had been doing that is they were printing it and then putting this pearlescent laminate over the top of it. And they had, I think had experimented with a few different coatings to try and get that similar look, but it just didn't carry sort of the premium feel that they were looking for with this product. so we were able to work with our vendors to put together a coating that allowed them to ditch the laminate that of course, wreaks havoc in the recycling waste streams, and replace it with a coating that has really a nice pearlescent, feel to it. and it actually won a, a sustainable packaging award and I probably shouldn't have that, the organization that awarded it, handy, but I don't, so that was one, another one that's, I think it's kind of cool. And this goes back a little ways, but, we. I've been a supplier for Microsoft for a number of years now, and we were one, we were pretty instrumental in the early days of getting them to switch from plastic gift cards to paper gift cards, right? And a lot of these cards are, they're one time use, right? And you pick it up, you punch in the code on your Xbox or what have you, and then it, and then you pitch it. and then more recently, with that same product line, we've gotten rid of shrink wrap. So all the cards get shrink wrapped in bundles, right? And we've replaced that with a paper bander, right? So anyway, it's, a lot of the best. I think, wins from a sustainability standpoint, start with the partnerships, right. And that's something that I think, we really value in our customers is that they see us as a partner, and we can work out stuff like that together. Cause it doesn't happen. Overnight, it all takes time and resources. one other one that, that came to my attention, fairly recently was, labels that we did for a company called gentlemen farmer. It's kind of a men's grooming brands, kind of a cool up and coming brand. And, we made. Labels from them that they're plastic labels, but they're made from, forest products. So it's renewable, regenerative plastic. And again, there, I can't give you the specific science behind it, but it looks like plastic. It feels like plastic. I think technically it is plastic, but it's a renewable, because it's based on forest products. So, wow.

Cory Connors: 9:53

Fascinating. And I remember when Michael was on, we talked about, hotel key cards. That is a big part of your business that you do a paper instead of plastic. So that sounds like the X Box thing as well.

Chris Dillon: 10:08

Very similar. Yeah. Yeah. And it's based on, and that's, it's not a big part of our business that, We've kind of had, starts and stops on that, if I'm being honest, right? Sure. We first rolled it out, I think it was in like December of 2020. and then hotels basically shut down, right? So that kind of, a kink in that. And, and it's been slow to adopt, but we're starting to see a little bit of traction on that.

Cory Connors: 10:30

That's great. Yeah. I think that's a simple solution to a problem, that's affects anyone who travels. And I think, because you always feel bad, you use it once and then maybe you. I like to leave them on the desk when I leave in hopes that they'll reprogram them for someone else. Yeah. But, who

Chris Dillon: 10:50

knows? I think the reality of it is that doesn't happen very often. Right. And I have good intentions as well. And I try to do that, but I can't tell you how many times I, I landed MSP here in Minneapolis and it's like, Oh man, my room key. Oh, well,

Cory Connors: 11:03

so let's talk about Minnesota. What kinds of things y'all do there for a good time?

Chris Dillon: 11:09

Well, in the summer. in the summer, there's a lot, I mean, it's, we have, everybody thinks of Minnesota as being cold and dreary and yeah, true. It's cold in the winter. there's really no getting around that. But, we have this land of 10, 000 lakes. I think it's actually closer to like 14, 000 lakes. Right. there's a lot of ways to get outside in the summer. And I think generally Minnesotans, if I can sort of lump us all together, time spring hits, we're all eager to get outdoors. And so there's, we've got a very vibrant community from, everything outdoors, fishing. canoeing, cycling, for me personally, I kind of dabble in all that stuff. and, even in the summer months, I, unfortunately spend a fair amount of time indoors at hockey rinks, right. As, Byproduct of, my kids and then actually myself, I actually play hockey, still. Is

Cory Connors: 11:57

it like, they have like grown up leagues for rec or

Chris Dillon: 12:00

how does it work? that's a nice way of putting it. Old man leagues. I always thought hockey

Cory Connors: 12:06

looked like a lot of fun. But, growing up here in Oregon, I, we just didn't ice skate. it wasn't something that we, although the Winterhawks here are very popular, our minor league, team, and we've gone to see them many times. they're really cool. it's a neat experience to go. Yeah.

Chris Dillon: 12:22

Yeah.

Cory Connors: 12:24

Yeah. Yeah, this is great. I really appreciate it. And, I'm excited about what's going on in the world of sustainable packaging and I appreciate what Myers is doing to help with that. So thank you. Yeah. Well, thank you. And, for those listening, stay tuned for more. We appreciate it.