How a little company that makes boxes blew up during COVID

Two generations of Great Little Box Company family ownership - Robert Meggy, Margaret Meggy, Christine Tindall, and Brad Tindall.

A surge in online shopping during the pandemic has led to a boom in business for Richmond-based Great Little Box Company / Ideon Packaging (GLBC).

“Most of our divisions have seen a spike in business due to COVID’s impact on packaging and shipping needs,” said GLBC president Brad Tindall.

“This has created opportunities and challenges for us as we learn the new sales cycles that have come from these changes.”

GLBC provides a wide variety of products and services. They include custom corrugated boxes and retail displays, foam protective packaging, folding cartons, and labels. The company also distributes a full range of shipping and moving supplies.

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“We have developed our business over time to be able to offer customers one place for all their label and packaging needs, “said Tindall.

“We have an in-house packaging design team that works out of what we call the GIC – Great Idea Centre. We are able to provide structural design, graphic design, estimating and pre-press for all the products we manufacture.”

“All the parts of labels and packaging need to work together and by having every division in house we can offer unparalleled expertise and convenience.”

Santino Rematore, Corrugate supervisor oversees the corrugated production manufacturing for GLBC.

GLBC was founded by Robert Meggy in 1982 and started with a 5,000 square foot plant in Burnaby with only three employees. As the company expanded its services and products, GLBC would grow to larger facilities throughout Richmond and then into a 140,000 sq ft location in Vancouver in 1996. Their continued growth would see the company move in 2006 to Mitchell Island and its current 250,000 sq ft facility.

“Our geographical expansion is based around a satellite office in Alberta and we are continuing to grow our services east across the prairies,” explained Tindall. “We will also work to expand our radius around our Everett branch to surrounding cities and states.”

In addition to great packaging and design, GLBC and its employees are also passionate about supporting various charities and associations in the community.

“Our community and charity initiatives are heavily influenced by our employees,” explained Tindall. “We believe that their concerns and causes in the communities we operate in should guide how we give back. We are also a company with a culture that loves to have fun so we often combine employee involvement with charitable initiatives.

Some of the employee involvement initiatives GLBC and team members have supported include Bright Nights in Stanley Park and the Santa Run to support the BC Professional Fire Fighters Burn Fund, One Night Outside to help fight and prevent youth homelessness, Movember to fundraise for prostate and testicular cancer, men’s health, and mental health and suicide prevention, and Dress for the Cause to raise money for the Breast Cancer Society.

Great Little Box Company and Ideon Packaging Richmond Based Head Office.

As GLBC looks towards the new year and beyond, the company has plans for growth while maintaining their focus on helping their customers.

“The future for our services is to launch our GIC (Great Idea Centre) to customers in the future to enable us to truly ‘WOW’ customers with our integrated packaging design services and customer experience centre,” said Tindall. “We often provide consulting services for new prospects or customers to help ensure they are choosing the right packaging for their brand, distribution channels, and specific product.”

“Our focus has always been on providing amazing customer service that helps us create long-term partnerships with customers and not just a single sale.”