Buckeye Corrugated’s 100,000-square-foot corrugated packaging, manufacturing and distribution facility at Airway Commerce Center in Reno is the nearly 70-year-old company’s first venture west of the Rocky Mountains.
It’s also BCI’s first all-new facility, since growth traditionally has come through strategic acquisitions.
Buckeye Corrugated’s focus has predominantly been serving markets in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest, said Adam Williams, BCI’s area vice president. The company headquartered at Fairlawn, Ohio, now has 12 divisions with the opening of its first western-region facility.
Although the Reno facility is Buckeye’s first entirely new corrugated production facility, the company has extensive experience in setting up and improving operations, said Williams.
“One thing we do very well as a company is catering our business to the market,” he said. “Some of our plants are smaller, while some are much larger — it just depends on the market.
“We are starting out with 100,000 square feet, and equipment orders are being placed right now,” he added.
With lead times ranging from six to 12 months, BCI’s Northern Nevada facility will start out as a distribution center before moving into corrugated manufacturing. Initially, the company expects to hire five warehouse employees, but that will change once it begins producing corrugated packaging, Williams said. Production equipment typically requires three-person crews to operate, and BCI expects to employ between 20 and 25 production workers at full ramp up.
“We are optimistic that we will be producing out of here before the third quarter of 2026,” Williams said. “When we make an acquisition, we usually make some changes to get operations running a little tighter and grow sales. We’ve done that with our plants in Houston, Texas; Wooster, Ohio; Greenville, South Carolina; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Cedar Falls, Iowa.
“We know how to lay out facilities for efficiency and safety. We have gotten good at that piece of it. The biggest challenge is the top line – when you acquire a company, you acquire a book of business. We have to grow sales out here, so we have brought on a few account executives who are familiar with the Reno market, and we are hitting that pretty hard right now.”
Buckeye had been serving a handful of customers in Northern Nevada and Northern California for several years, added Scott Fuselier, BCI’s vice president of enterprise sales. When BCI began scouting western region markets, it quickly became apparent that there was an opportunity to grow revenue by serving the companies in Northern Nevada’s burgeoning manufacturing sector, as well as businesses in the neighboring Golden State.
“One reason we chose Reno is from a regulatory standpoint, but once we started exploring Reno, we found that there isn’t a corrugated packaging manufacturer here,” Fuselier said. “When we started this process a year ago, we connected with EDAWN, and they introduced us to many local manufacturers. Our sales pitch for the last year has been, ‘How would you feel about a local corrugated manufacturer?’ The reception was that this market is starving for a local corrugated manufacturer.”
BCI targeted multiple competing markets – Salt Lake City, Boise, Phoenix, Las Vegas – before settling on Northern Nevada, Fuselier added. BCI also looked at multiple submarkets within Greater Reno-Sparks and considered quite a few variables before selecting the airport submarket primarily due to its proximity to Reno’s workforce versus other submarkets, Fuselier said.
Buckeye Corrugated makes custom corrugated packaging and displays. Some of its plants focus on simple brown boxes, while others focus on high-end graphics, packaging assembly, and product fulfillment. The Reno facility will likely have a blend of all functions. The main challenge now that the ink on the lease is dry, Fuselier said, is scaling revenue.
“It’s now about how quickly we can get business from Reno and Northern Nevada on the books,” he said.
As an employee-owned company, employees are eligible to participate in BCI’s stock ownership program. BCI also has a plant profitability bonus program.
“Those things are a big part of our culture and ensure everyone has skin in the game and is driving in the same direction,” Williams said. “There are a lot of benefits to working for our company. We want to make sure we are bringing in people that work hard, have a good attitude and come to work every day. We work hard, but we have fun because we enjoy what we do.”
