Today we’d like to introduce you to James Luyben.
Hi James, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have been in the packaging industry for over 25 years. I started in the business a couple of weeks after my high school graduation in 1996 and worked for my Uncle Joe, who owned JDL Packaging. I started by sweeping the floors, driving forklifts and trucks, and eventually managing his small retail box store. After some time, I migrated into doing some sales for him while I was still in college at Long Beach City College and then Cal State Long Beach.
After a few years, in 1999, a customer of the retail box store offered me a job in the aerospace industry. After conferring with my uncle, we both thought it was a good opportunity that I could not pass up. In this new capacity, I worked as purchasing and a program manager for a company that handled special projects on private jets. In the few years I worked there, I gained a significant amount of experience by working on projects with high-end clients and I still have friends at that company to this day.
In 2003, I made the decision to go back to the packaging industry and joined up with a cousin and decided to do packaging sales full time. I worked for this packaging distributor for 17 years until they were suddenly sold in 2019. During my tenure there, I was a major component of the organization as VP of Sales and helped facilitate them growing from being a tiny no-name distributor running out of a garage in Long Beach to a decent size player in the Southern California market.
After working for two previous packaging companies over the previous 20+ years, in 2019 I decided to strike out on my own and started Vital Pack. Vital Pack is a full-line packaging distributor located in Signal Hill, CA. We deal in corrugated, stretch film, tape and other industrial and retail packaging items. At Vital Pack, we partner with 100+ packaging manufacturers to help our customers get the perfect packaging for their needs. We serve both local customers in the So Cal market as well as carry national reach helping companies currently in every major US market.
In 2021, I added to Vital Pack’s product offering by opening the Vital Pack Label Lab, VPLL is a printer and converter of pressure-sensitive labels. At VPLL, we use the latest in digital label technology along with the finest converting equipment all in the hands of a top-notch crew.
With all of the consolidation in the packaging and label industry, Vital Pack serves a critical role of being a service-oriented distributor/manufacturer backed by a team with 50+ years of packaging and label experience.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Of course, it has not always been smooth…
Every start-up has their own challenges and growing pains. Whether it was a competitor gunning for the new guy on the block or COVID which became an issue for literally everyone. And,.. with COVID came labor challenges and supply chain problems as well as other issues.
The silver lining for Vital Pack came in our ability to be nimble and efficient. We were simply more effective helping our customers with their challenges and that made all the difference. With our smaller staff during COVID, we did not have to worry about sending droves of people home to work. We managed safe protocols with key personal and then turned our focus toward helping our customers.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Vital Pack?
Vital Pack is a full-line distributor of industrial and retail packaging items. We specialize in corrugated, stretch film, tape, bags and more. Our strengths include helping customers with the structural integrity of their packaging so we can make sure our customer’s products get to the end user safely and intact, as well as custom packaging that helps our customer’s products stand out in crowded markets.
The Vital Pack Label Lab, which is strictly labels, includes everything from blank labels and ribbons that customers run though their printers to our vibrant digitally printed labels which are printed and converted all in-house. We specialize in short to medium runs with and have the ability to turn labels faster than anyone else in the market.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I was lucky enough to find a local small business owner group which continues to guide me and be a sounding board to ideas and challenges that business owners all face.
Contact Info:
- Website: vitalpack.com
- Instagram: vitalpackinc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-luyben-99b1553/
