How creative werks combines in-house design, co-packing scale, and family ownership to serve leading food brands.
As a privately held, family-owned company, creative werks has established one of the most diverse co-packing operations in the US from its base in the Chicagoland area. Founded in 1999, the business began as a designer and manufacturer of packaging products before transitioning into co-packing for food products like confections and snack foods. Today, creative werks partners with Fortune 500 and consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands to bring products to market through integrated design, commercialization, and co-packing services.
From concept and line build to production execution, the company delivers turnkey solutions and is recognized for its automation expertise and strategic capability investments. With zero product recalls, 99.5 percent first-pass quality, and 97 percent on-time attainment, creative werks has gained a strong reputation for its performance and delivery metrics. Based in Chicagoland, the company’s central US location provides strategic advantages, such as speed to market, reduced freight costs, and greater supply chain reliability for clients shipping nationwide.
Founder and President Steve Schroeder joins us to elaborate on the ongoing investments across creative werks, as well as the scale of its operation. “We have approximately one million square feet of manufacturing and filling space across several plants in the Chicagoland area,” Steve opens. “Within that footprint, we operate more than 70 production lines that support hundreds of packaging formats, from everyday programs to automated seasonal work. We do various types of filling projects: bagging, variety bagging, flow wrapping, and any other type of specialty packaging.”
The breadth of the company’s services is the result of continued, disciplined investment, and it has added an average of one new capability per year since 1999. “Since our founding, we’ve continued to add new capabilities, such as high-speed bagging, pouching, and thermoforming,” Steve adds. “As we do packaging manufacturing, we also have blow molding and injection blow molding capabilities.
“Last year, we added an enrobing line, which now enables us to do the last stage of food production, primarily flavoring. Rather than just packing products, this investment means we can deliver a finishing capability that is more involved in the food-making process. The new line can also complete bag-in-box, mainly for the cereal industry and snack foods sectors.”
Concept development
While manufacturing and packaging are crucial steps toward the end of the process, design sits at the other end of the timeline. Through its in-house design studio, Werkshop Design Group (WDG), the company offers ideation and packaging concepts for major brand companies. “We work with sales and marketing teams, as well as brand teams, to transform ideas into product-ready packaging through concept development, market-backed design, artwork, packaging procurement, and critical testing such as shelf-life and ship validation, creating a faster, smoother path to launch,” Steve explains.
WDG also underpins the company’s seasonal expertise in formats ranging from Advent calendars and specialty tins to candy cane tubes, of which creative werks produces the majority of US supply through a vertically integrated, closed-loop operation that reintroduces scrap plastic into production.
The concept of circularity is just one aspect of the strong corporate responsibility policy in place at creative werks. The company is ISO 14001 certified and undergoes both EcoVadis and Sedex audits to ensure it is consistently accountable for its actions. It is also a long-standing member of AIM-Progress, a Brussels-based responsible sourcing initiative with members including some of the world’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. “We were invited to participate in the organization around ten years ago as one of the first supplier members, working alongside brands like Mars, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Unilever,” Steve confirms.
Family ownership
In terms of sustainability, creative werks also supports clients in meeting their environmental objectives, having helped several companies transition to more responsible packaging materials. Extensive research and development (R&D) are crucial to designing and developing sustainable options, whether that’s through new technologies, materials, or production methodologies. The company has for many years, run 100 percent on alternative energy thereby significantly reducing its carbon footprint.
Aside from sustainability, there are other key trends impacting the market, most notable for creative werks is ongoing merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. “In our sector, we’re seeing most companies being acquired by private equity firms, but we’re not a leveraged business and we’re committed to maintaining our family ownership,” Steve shares. “I have three sons who are working in the business. I hope the company will continue to provide long-term stability for our family, our associates’ families, and our customers. Being an independent, family-owned business also allows us to make quick investment decisions to maintain year-over-year growth.
“Our current large-scale project, which is to implement a new ERP system, is already underway and we’re aiming to go live with the system in 2027. It’s a big capital project and has taken a lot of resources, but once complete, it will significantly transform and streamline our internal operations.”
Significant and sizeable projects
Looking further ahead, Steve’s ambition for creative werks is characteristically steady. “We have a ten-year strategic plan to grow the business, add additional clients, and continue to innovate,” he states. “When a brand company has a big project that it may not want to do in-house, we want to be the name at the forefront of their minds. This strategy has been successful for us in the past. Our clients often approach us with a project we’ve never done before, but they’re confident that our quality and engineering know-how will see us deliver significant and sizable projects.”
Steady ownership, disciplined investment, and a willingness to take on complex projects are the pillars behind creative werks’ success, and they will continue to guide and differentiate the business in an era of private equity acquisitions.
