Kell Joins GNC Family

On October 1, 2004, Great Northern completed the purchase of Kell Corporation, which includes Kell Container, Kell Specialty Products and Kell Fulfillment. The coming together of the two privately held, family-owned companies results in a powerful resource that offers many advantages to customers of both companies.

“With these combined resources, our customers will benefit from a stronger regional packaging supplier and nationally recognized provider of creative point-of-sale solutions,” said John Davis, president of Great Northern's Container and Display Groups.

Kell Container and Kell Specialty employ more than 200 people at two locations in Chippewa Falls, Wis. Kell Container has a full complement of converting equipment to produce standard and custom-designed corrugated packaging products for business, industrial, agricultural and consumer use. Kell Specialty designs, manufactures, assembles, packs and distributes graphically enhanced point-of-sale packaging and temporary P-O-P displays.

By combining the strengths of the two companies, Great Northern and Kell are able to expand what the companies are already good at doing, and at the same time build up resources to develop even better capabilities.

One of the most significant additions Kell brings to Great Northern's product offerings is expanded printing capabilities. Kell offers the latest advancements in high-end flexographic and offset printing and recently invested in a large-format offset press that allows direct print on microflutes.

The new partnership also will benefit Kell's customers through enhanced product and service offerings, especially because Kell now has a guaranteed source of paper instead of purchasing paper on the open market.

Great Northern and Kell have similar cultural philosophies, based on customer-focused core values and stringent quality expectations. "Kell has fostered an entrepreneurial culture and a belief in a shared future with their employees, values that we share," Davis said.

Kell Corporation was founded by Paul and Carey Kell in 1964. The business began in a small office in Eau Claire, Wis. with two pieces of machinery and a staff of three. The company quickly prospered, and in three years built a new 48,000-square-foot building at its current location in Chippewa Falls, Wis.

Continued success led to the purchase of additional adjacent land, and the company added on to the original building eight times, growing to 176,000 square feet of manufacturing space.

Mike, John and Tom Kell, sons of the original owners, took over the family business in 1984. In 1994, the brothers, in response to the rising industry demand for color graphics on packaging, created Kell Specialty Products. The Kells invested in a state-of-the-art, five-color flexographic press that ensured high-quality results. In 1999, John and Tom Kell bought out their brother Mike, who retired.

Kell Container has built a solid reputation for ensuring excellence with every order by using the most modern corrugated converting equipment. In addition to consistent upgrades to its facilities and equipment, the company has invested in employee training programs to facilitate ongoing process and service improvements.

One of the most significant investments is the pursuit of ISO certification, which both Kell Container and Kell Specialty recently achieved. Great Northern's Container and Display Groups are both ISO certified, so this will provide an additional measure of quality assurance.

The transition has been smooth, and all parties involved are confident that customers will be affected positively by the change.

“Our customers expect the highest standards of quality in our industry, delivered with the shortest lead times,” said Davis. “We recognize that it takes the dedication of every employee to achieve this. Kell's employees have the same work ethic. We are confident that our combined forces will continue to do the job right—and do it even better.”