Regulars / Young managers | 49Young managers – Ginnie Gandy and Alex HoffmanChanneled Resources Group’s Ginnie Gandy, account manager, and Alex Hoffman, purchaser and account manager, on their journey within labels and the company’s sustainability focus. Interview by Jordan HartGinnie Gandy: Alex and I have similar experiences in getting into labels because our families got us involved. Channeled Resources is a family company started by our grandfather, Calvin Frost. My mom is the CEO, Alex’s dad is the COO, and his mom works in customer service, so all our family is very involved and that is how I got plugged in. I was home for a summer and my mom started talking to me about the business, and lo and behold here I am a year later. Alex Hoffman: My story is very similar. The pandemic actually helped facilitate my entrance into the company. I was supposed to go to Amsterdam and intern for AWA, and I obviously could not make it over L-R: Alex Hoffman, purchaser and account manager, and Ginnie Gandy, account managerthere. I was interning for them and living at home and my dad, just like Ginnie’s mom, “The people really differentiate this industry started talking to me and I ended up joining the company. I’ve been with the company and make it comfortable to work in”for eight months now.Ginnie Gandy: My favorite part of the industry is the people. I was working for customer driven. It is based on what the need to emphasize sustainability efforts a tech company in HR before this, and I end users want and need. While we don’t and that we offer a good place to work worked with a lot of software engineers. interact that much with end users, I think with managers who respect them and It was a great experience, but the people there has to be that drive to switch from where they can be comfortable in their weren’t as genuine or down to earth as I’m liner labels to linerless. As that continues offce with coworkers who care about experiencing here. to develop, and technologies continue to them. Offce environment and employee It’s something about our industry. improve, then it justifes the potentially to employee culture are really important. Anybody I talk to, whether its purchasing, higher cost. That is what our industry is really good at. sales, or customer service, everyone is Ginnie Gandy: I work more on our The employees at our Chicago offce, some just kind – even if you screw something release liner side of the business, and I am of them have been there for over 25 years. I up and they are mad at you, they are still looking forward to seeing how we can get think there is something really special about patient and understanding. The people more effcient. I want to see how we can the culture in our industry and people stay really differentiate this industry and make it get more throughput, reduce waste, and for a reason, and that reason is the people. comfortable to work in and easy to connect maybe one day be able to reuse liner. Alex Hoffman: It is easy to see the – no matter where they work or what In terms of sustainability, the biggest paper industry as not very sustainable and company they are part of. thing that our grandfather Calvin has been old. That mindset as a young person can Alex Hoffman: Being in purchasing and focusing on is waste to energy – how can make it seem archaic and uninteresting, building relationships with raw material we take all the matrix waste or release but it really is an interesting industry. It suppliers, it has been really nice interacting liner discards and convert those into fuel takes good training programs and a good with a whole range of different people pellets that we can then use to convert culture to bring people in. The ability to and how willing they are to share their into energy. At our manufacturing plant work remotely, and how Covid has enabled knowledge with me. As I’m new in the we collect all our waste and send it to be more people to work from a wide range industry, they have been willing to help me converted into fuel pellets. It seems like it is of geographic locations, has probably learn and grow. a fantastic closed-loop offering that has a benefted the industry in many ways. In terms of trends, I’m looking forward lot of potential. Now you don’t necessarily have to live in to seeing how linerless labels grow. Right Younger people are really interested Wausau or somewhere like that to be in now, it’s globally growing about six percent in impact and culture. There are a lot of the paper industry. a year. It is a great way for companies to different initiatives around sustainability reduce waste and facilitate more effcient and our industry knows that is where we Watch the full interview on the shipping patterns, so I look forward to are trending and that is what consumers Labels & Labeling YouTube channelseeing how that develops. This growth is want. To get more young people, we Apr - Jun 2022