Neenah’s expertise as a paper manufacturer has been 150 years in the making! Today, the company highlights advancements the industry never thought possible—including beautiful, bright white boards made with 100% post-consumer waste. What’s more, these boards are available in a range of finishes to match any brand’s aesthetics, just one of the many ways Neenah excels in customization.
 
Here, Gary Bernstein, Neenah’s Senior Sales Director, Packaging and Sustainable Solutions, fills us in on how their product offering has expanded, how they can partner from ideation to e-commerce and POP—and the opportunities that lie ahead.
 
Jamie Matusow: Neenah has quite a history! Can you please provide a few product highlights?
Gary Bernstein: For nearly150 years, Neenah, Inc. has been a partner in the creative process that provides paper-based solutions to help bring brands to life and transform ideas into results. The Neenah signature portfolio includes market-leading brands such as CLASSIC, ENVIRONMENT, NEENAH Folding Board, ESTATE Label, NEENAH IMAGEMAX Paper Card, and new NEENAH IMAGEMAX Signage. With multiple manufacturing facilities, Neenah is proud to devote significant efforts to increase sustainable premium paper production by implementing responsible fiber sourcing standards, conservation efforts, and focusing on our products’ recyclability.
 
JM: What is Neenah’s specialty?
GB: At our core, we are a paper manufacturer. Over the years, our portfolio of products has expanded through both innovation and acquisition. The substrates we produce are used for folding cartons, box wrap, marketing collateral, signage, gift card and carrier, point of purchase (POP) and more. That all being said, I’d have to say our specialty is customization. We help brands create impact sustainably through color, texture and design.
 
JM: What makes Neenah stand out from other suppliers as far as your categories and services?
GB: We excel at premium branding, customization and partnership with our end-users. The papers and boards we produce are often crafted to meet a brand’s specific need as well as a certain tactile aesthetic. That can range anywhere from custom color matches to post-consumer content, and anything else pertinent to a specific brand or product.
 
JM: How has Neenah evolved over the past few years regarding services/offerings?
GB: Our product offering has expanded in areas that have enabled us to work more holistically with brands. We can go broad, and look at overall company sustainability goals, or zero in on a specific brand launch with a customer, and provide solutions from a variety of angles. Sometimes the focus is on sustainable packaging, or perhaps a custom color match, other times we go beyond just the packaging and provide substrates for all customer touchpoints including both in-store and e-commerce. We also have in-house creative and structural designers that bring another level of expertise to the conversation.   
 
JM: Any product/collection you are most proud of?
GB: NEENAH Folding Board. Namely the offering of beautiful, bright white boards made with 100% post-consumer waste! We have five distinct finishes that work for a variety of aesthetics. And as I mentioned earlier, we can customize our boards to bring a brand’s vision to life—whether that be a custom color, texture, PCW content or something else.
 
JM: Can you briefly describe a recent innovative or challenging product that you produced—and how it reflects your expertise?
GB: We are currently working with a high-end retailer on innovations with their e-commerce packaging. They were looking for ways to eliminate non-recyclable packing materials while still protecting their products during transit, and at the same time, giving the recipient a premium unboxing moment. Our expertise as a paper manufacturer allowed us to bring ideas and solutions to the table, work directly with their fulfillment centers, and ultimately deliver a customized solution that sets them apart from their competitors.  
 
JM: What’s next for Neenah?
GB: We are on the cusp of launching an innovative new solution that helps eliminate plastic mailers in the e-commerce shipping arena. This new innovation, along with the increased consumer demand for sustainable products, has accelerated our research and development efforts in other categories as well. Our expertise in premium substrates combined with our technical mastery and experimental, growth mindset has created some exciting new opportunities for us. Stay tuned!