Page 20 - Packaging News Magazine Sep-Oct 2018

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PEOPLE IN PACKAGING www.packagingnews.com.au September-October 2018
Leadership lessons
Craig Wellman, the CEO of leading independent operator Wellman Packaging shares his dynamic lifelong journey in the industry with PKN’s associate editor, Wayne Robinson.
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OT too many children spent their primary school holidays in plas- tics plants, but that was the begin- ning of Wellman Packaging CEO Craig Wellman’s career in the packaging industry, as he helped out in the family business that was
then known as Prototype Plastics. Now the well-respected industry identity sits atop one of the country's leading indepen- dent packaging businesses, operating a 24-hour-a-day ultra-modern plant produc- ing PET preforms, bottles, caps and closures, and some thin walled packaging.
“My first experiences in the factory were aged five or six, and by around ten I was helping my father out with setting up ma- chines, mixing materials and packing box- es”, Wellman recounts. “This evolved into all aspects of the business, including laying out a new production hall in my early teenage years, which was a great experience at that age.”
Established by Craig’s parents John and Robyn in 1973, the business provided rapid prototyping and injection moulding services to speed innovation, drawing on John’s technical experience at DuPont in polymers. Expanding into closure produc- tion with a name change to Wellman Industrial Plastics Co, or Wipco, saw the business begin to grow.
“At that time we were producing a lot of caps and closures and I had a deep exposure with the engineering of these projects together with operations,” he says, noting that customers came from the top tier of consumer product catego- ries including Goodman Fielder and Col- gate with a mix of business for food, household and personal care products.
Having been always around engineering, Wellman chose instead a tertiary degree at UTS in international finance and account- ing to support his career in business. He says, “Our family has a long history as
business owners. My grandparents on both sides were in food retailing including delicatessens across Sydney, and my siblings also run successful businesses, so it seems to be in the DNA.”
Post-university, as is typical in family businesses, he joined a major outside company, in his case Price Waterhouse (now PwC) providing opportunities for travel, including a stint in South Africa, and a wide range of commercial experience. Qualifying there as a Chartered Accountant, he worked primarily in FMCG and manufacturing, together with banking and insurance clients with a particular interest in post-acquisition work and business process re-engineering to unlock strategic value for his clients.
After several years with PwC, it was time to do it on his own. “Leaving PwC was
ABOVE: Craig Wellman: Investing in technology and innovation for the business, investing in skills for the industry.