November 6, 2024
Taking flight in his new role, the Association’s board leader embraces the path ahead
When some of his colleagues learn that Gary Brewer graduated from North Carolina State University’s chemical engineering and pulp and paper science and technology programs, they naturally assume he was a gifted student. Brewer insists that wasn’t really the case. “I wouldn’t say I was a good student,” he says.
Still, he knew early on that he wanted to be a chemical engineer, which required a serious education. If he were to succeed academically, he would need to perform better than he had in high school. That meant being single-minded about his goals. “It came down to discipline,” Brewer says. “I had to focus. I couldn’t play club sports, couldn’t be in a fraternity, or do any of that stuff.”
So while his North Carolina State roommates crashed on the couch to watch the television series Miami Vice, “I was at the library almost every night to get away from the distractions,” Brewer recalls.
Today, Brewer applies an engineering mindset to his work as a boxmaker—president and CEO of Package Crafters in High Point, North Carolina, and Creative Packaging in Savannah, Georgia. And now, his roles expand even further as he begins his term as 2024–2025 AICC chairman.
Growing Up
“My father was in the textile industry on the finance side,” Brewer says. “If you wanted to get promoted in those days, you had to be willing to move. Since it was just me—no siblings—and my mother didn’t work outside the home, we moved around a lot. I grew up all over North Carolina.”
Brewer’s career interests were shaped early on. Initially, he assumed he’d follow in his father’s footsteps and work in accounting. Then, he discovered chemistry. He didn’t see himself as a chemist in a lab, though. Instead, he leaned toward chemical engineering. And that led him to NC State’s Engineering Department and the related pulp and paper science and technology program. “Paper science is simply specialized chemical engineering,” he says, “so that was my backdoor into the chemical engineering program.”
Just as he knew he didn’t want to be a lab chemist, Brewer also didn’t foresee spending an entire career working as an engineer. “I didn’t want to be in the trenches doing project work or process work all my life,” he says. “I wanted to manage people and processes at a higher level. That was my goal from the start.”
Engineering and higher-level process management appealed to Brewer’s technical mindset. “I enjoy solving problems, fixing things, digging into cause and effect,” he says. “The single biggest thing I got out of engineering is understanding how to approach a problem. Give me all the data—all the ifs, ands, or buts—let me analyze them, and then I can help guide you to a conclusion or a decision that needs to be made.”
Industry Introduction
After graduating in 1992 with two Bachelor of Science degrees, Brewer left his home state for the first time, taking a position at St. Joe Paper Co., a paper mill in Port St. Joe, Florida. “I started out as a process engineer and believed I would be in management in that segment of the industry,” he says. “I never imagined the career change to corrugated boxes. But my education, my experience, and my technical knowledge ended up making me attractive to a corrugated box company in North Carolina, which recruited me.”
That company was Carolina Container. President Paul Ingle needed someone with mill experience to manage the company’s containerboard purchasing. And as it happens, Carolina Container also was where Brewer’s father, Wayne, was chief financial officer.
Brewer spent his days learning the corrugated business. He also made time to complete an MBA at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Within a year of graduation, he used his newfound knowledge to develop a business plan for a startup sheet plant, which he then presented to lenders. Those efforts paid off. He launched the resulting company, Package Crafters, with his father 20 years ago.
As with most startups, the first years were rough. Brewer credits his wife, Ginny, as being instrumental in getting the company—and their family—off the ground. “When we started the company, she was absolutely key because I didn’t take a paycheck for two years,” he says. “Hers was the only income. We ended up moving in with my parents, freshly married, and trying to start a family and a business. She was with me the whole time. Not only is she my wife, but she’s my best friend.”
Crafting a Career
Brewer says Package Crafters focuses predominantly on industrial packaging—“brown boxes with a little bit of color, a little bit of POP (point of purchase) display work.” Creative Packaging, a company he acquired in 2015, focuses more on color work and POP displays while producing its fair share of brown boxes.
“I’m proud of the reputation we’ve built as a company,” Brewer says. “We are respected for being a good company, a responsive company, a fair company. That’s really a big thing for me. It’s also a big thing for me that when I step out into the plant, I can look around at the 75 employees working for me and appreciate the fact that I am responsible for them and their families.
“I enjoy serving customers—getting the job done, making them happy, and giving them new ideas, new solutions. That’s probably the engineer in me,” he adds. “A lot of my competitors tell potential customers the same answer because they do the same things for everyone or they do what every other boxmaker does. That’s fine. If that’s what customers want, I can do that, too. But I’ll also say, ‘Have you thought about this? Have you considered that?Let me show you some other solutions.’”
Brewer describes his approach to leadership in his plants as hands off. “I give guardrails; I give advice,” he says. “I’m very open with [listening to people’s thoughts] on how to do something. And if I have an idea that you don’t agree with, speak up.”
Traveler, Not Tourist
When he is not in one of his companies, Brewer is likely to be in the air. “I’ve had my pilot’s license since I was 21 years old, and I’m an avid pilot,” he says. “Aviation is definitely a passion of mine.”
In addition, he enjoys running and participating in triathlons, restoring cars and houses, and spending time outdoors. “I like to fish a lot,” he says, “and within the last two years, I’ve even gained an interest in turkey hunting.” He also has coached sports, including coaching his three daughters in soccer.
Finally, Brewer says, he has a strong interest in experiencing the world through travel. “When I was really young, I ran across a quote that said, ‘Be a traveler of life, not a tourist,’” he says. “I’ve taken that to heart. I want to experience life, not just pass through it like a tourist. So if there’s an opportunity to do something new, I embrace it. For instance, on a trip to Hawaii last January, my family decided to take surfing lessons, having never surfed before. And it was great. I probably got too confident too quickly—taking on the big waves too soon—but I had a great time doing it. For me, it’s all about the experience.”
The Industry and AICC
When asked what he sees as the big challenges for the industry and the Association during his chairmanship, Brewer’s first thought won’t surprise anyone. “Labor is always going to remain an issue,” he says.
“Beyond that,” he continues, “I think we are going to need to address the impact of ongoing consolidation in our market. Larger companies are buying up smaller independents, while people are aging out of the workforce or selling their companies for various reasons. We’re in this natural cycle of the big people getting bigger, while the smaller people are disappearing.
“That’s going to come full circle; it always does,” he says. “So, the industry consolidates, prices rise, and service may suffer. And that leads to startups sprouting up that promise to deliver what the bigger companies can’t.”
Brewer’s insight into that cycle is born of experience. “When I started Package Crafters, industry lead times were, on average, a week out,” he says. “So, to break through, I entered the market with a three-day delivery model. The competitors in my market were not providing that, and it caught a lot of people’s attention. That’s what put me on the map.”
Similarly, the next generation of startups will be searching for their own competitive advantages, along with the kind of resources, information, and opportunities only AICC can provide. “As leaders within AICC, we need to explore all of the ways we can support these startups with the technical knowledge and resources they’re going to need,” he says. “How do we ensure a good source of capital for those wanting to start up? How do we help them acquire the equipment they need? How do we give them all the entrepreneurial resources they need? At the same time, we must remain relevant for industry veterans because the industry is constantly evolving.”
Brewer draws on his aviation background to illustrate AICC’s integral value for the industry. “You wouldn’t just climb into the pilot’s seat of a plane without knowing how to fly, having a flight plan, being prepared for whatever pops up in your flight path,” he points out. “AICC offers the key building blocks to a successful flight: educational coursework, CEO groups, production leadership groups, and the Emerging Leaders group. And the recently formed Foundation for Packaging Education is soon to be the catalyst for next-level educational and leadership offerings.”
All of these resources work in combination to help AICC members become stronger contributors to the industry, people who are “always leading, whether they’re in direct conversation with someone or just walking the floor.”
For Brewer, AICC will always be part of that leadership message. “I knew about AICC when I started Package Crafters, but I felt like I was too small to join,” he recalls. “I look back on that now and realize it was a total mistake. It’s the organization that the independents in our industry absolutely need.”
Robert Bittner is a Michigan-based freelance journalist and a frequent BoxScore contributor.
