The Econo-Pak Food Packaging Podcast Just Got an Upgrade

We’re excited to welcome you to the first episode of the new and improved Econo-Pak Food Packaging Podcast!

In this episode, our hosts, Sarah Richter and Mike Mead, sit down to share some behind-the-scenes updates on how we’ve elevated our podcast experience, from upgraded audio and video equipment to a more efficient, streamlined content creation process.

We also introduce our brand-new Learning Center, a centralized hub of knowledge designed to support our clients, partners, and industry professionals with valuable insights on food packaging, compliance, and innovation.

We reflect on the podcast’s growth so far, share what’s ahead, and thank you, our listeners, for your continued support and engagement. We’re looking forward to delivering even more relevant, practical, and helpful content in future episodes.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• We’ve upgraded our podcast setup for a more polished and engaging experience.
• Our new Learning Center will make expert guidance and industry knowledge more accessible than ever.
• Discover how Econo-Pak supports brands across a wide range of product types, including dry foods, vitamins, powders, drink mixes, baby products, and more. We specialize in high-volume custom food packaging.
• Regulatory compliance remains a major focus, and future episodes will continue to explore it in depth.
• We’re committed to providing real value to those navigating the food packaging space.
  

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Podcast Setup & Equipment Upgrades
02:31 – Launching the Learning Center
04:51 – Packaging Solutions That Evolve With Market Needs
06:59 – Community Growth & What’s Ahead

WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Send us your questions or topic suggestions!

STAY CONNECTED

• Follow the Econo-Pak Food Packaging Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts!
• Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and YouTube!
  
  

TRANSCRIPT

SARAH:
Welcome to our new setup in our podcast room. What do you think?

MIKE:
This is great. It’s much better than what we had before. I’m curious to hear how it’s going to sound with some of the new equipment—new video equipment, new audio equipment.

SARAH:
Yeah, thank you very much to the commenter on LinkedIn about the microphone. So hopefully this will sound better for you.

MIKE:
Yeah, definitely. I feel like we’re providing some great content for the listeners. So please feel free to go back and listen to some of the previous episodes. Going forward, hopefully this will be a little bit more enjoyable and professional, I guess. Yes. We’re also working with an editor and producer, which is great too.

SARAH:
Hopefully we’ll be able to put out more content now because things are very busy behind the scenes here. So now we’ll have a little more of a streamlined process to get content out.

MIKE:
Definitely. Yeah. Your marketing efforts have definitely helped us ramp up the amount of RFQs we get too.

SARAH:
Yes, it’s awesome. I mean, even the types of leads we’ve been getting are great. So it’s been a lot of fun having a lot of conversations. Next week, we have five total conversations, and three of those are facility tours.

MIKE:
Yeah, definitely exciting times with the new expansion coming, and definitely getting the right leads for the type of company that we are in that dry food packaging space and high volume. And I think the people that are going to our website and learning—they can learn a lot about what we provide—but they get a better understanding of, you know, the type of company that they are and the type of company that we are. And it gives them that sense of clarity as a partner. And having those meetings, I think, has been definitely rewarding for us. But that clean marketing effort that you’ve put together is definitely helping that.

SARAH:
Yeah, we’re positioning ourselves to be that long-term partner for people. And that has definitely shown to be successful for the types of clients that we want to work with. As we’ve talked about before, customers who aren’t necessarily the right fit for us—we still provide value for them by showing them what we can help them with for future projects so that they can reach out when they need us. And then also providing them with resources in the meantime that they can work with if we’re not currently the right fit.

MIKE:
Yeah. And I think we’ll have a future episode about some of those resources, but I know you’ve been working behind the scenes. We’ve invested as a company in the efforts that you’ve already put forward. But the things to come— I don’t know if you want to talk about any of those?

SARAH:
Yeah, let’s do it.

MIKE:
Yeah. Okay. So I know the Learning Center, for me, I think is going to be a big expansion to the resources that we provide.

SARAH:
Yes, so the vision is that currently what’s on our website is a lot of great information that’s a little bit spread out all over the place. So it’s hard to, you know, get all the information you need in one spot. The Learning Center is going to do that. It’s going to bring it all into one space that’s going to be easily filterable.
So you can search by exactly the topic you want to see, whether that’s very specific topics about seasoning—spray versus slurry—or particular packaging formats. You want to read articles about what’s the best type of packaging format for your specific product? We’re going to have all that information. Also, our podcasts and future webinars will be on there. So it’s just going to be a great place for people to go to not only learn about who we are and what we do, but also just contract food packaging in general and provide resources for them to take the next step forward for their brand.

MIKE:
Yeah, and to me, that’s one of the really exciting things that we have happening in the company right now. And I love the fact that we’re able to provide a wealth of resources for everybody. So yeah, we are dry food packaging, high volume, SQF level three—all those things. We work with a lot of high-profile clients. And it’s nice for us to be able to provide resources for everybody.
We’ve already had it, right, where we provided resources and feedback and solutions for brands that maybe just didn’t have the volume yet to work with some of our automated equipment—but they’ve come back. I mean, we had that one client that we met with—they were back six months later and their volume almost 10x’d because they hit the market, they took some of the advice, and now they’re really excited to work with us. And we can provide a better solution for them based on our capabilities.

SARAH:
Exactly, exactly. And part of the conversation with that client was all the different formats that we could help them with, right?

MIKE:
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Our best solution—the best value that we provide—is probably being able to diversify into all the different types of market spaces: be it grocery, or your convenience market, or the big box stores. Those are all different packaging formats.
And with our equipment, we can help clients take that one thing that they do really well—that product that they develop—and put it into a plethora of different packaging formats and sizes and case packs for e-commerce and all those things, and really help them explore all those opportunities that they just didn’t have a solution for before because they didn’t want to have to buy five or six different pieces of equipment to be able to do that.

SARAH:
It’s a lot to manage, and it’s a lot to have to know. We’re the experts in that space of understanding the exact dimensions that every single market needs for their shelf space or wherever it’s going to be. We know exactly the type of packaging and the size that should be there. We take that mental load off so that the brand can focus on the sales and marketing aspect of promoting their food.

MIKE:
Yeah, definitely. And with those markets we serve too, there are certifying bodies that get involved. So yeah, it is packaging formats and sizes and fill weights and space and being able to learn how to ship into those clients. But then you have the quality aspect of it.
So, you know, we go through all of that already and we’re already qualified to be able to work with each one of those. So, you know, like our Costco audit and things like that become a great resource for the clients that we work with in scaling.

SARAH:
Yes, and those things are constantly changing, right? So it is a full-time effort to stay on top of it. And we have a really interesting conversation coming up with Tim, our Director of Procurement, to talk about some of those changing laws that are involved with packaging and sustainability.
So just having experts in every single department to help support our clients as they’re working through their new products, scaling it to new markets—it’s definitely helpful.

MIKE:
Yeah, definitely. Well, I’d like to say I appreciate everybody that has been listening—the comments, the feedback for this podcast. We weren’t sure where it was going to go when we started, right? It was something interesting. It helped us talk and introduce our team so people could get to know Econo-Pak through a different lens. And now it’s really exciting to see how the numbers are growing. People are subscribing, and now we want to continue to invest in growing this platform.

SARAH:
Totally agree. And yeah, we’ve had multiple comments from even current clients who see it and they’re like, “Wow, we didn’t know you had a podcast. It’s so cool.” So yeah, it’s a lot of fun. We love being able to provide information for you.
And if anybody has suggestions on future topics, we are happy to hear them. You know, we would love to hear it.

MIKE:
Definitely. Great.

SARAH:
Yeah, thank you.