By Michael Eng | Managing Editor
MULBERRY — Years ago, Highland Packaging Solutions CEO Steve Maxwell wrote down a list of goals for his life, should he ever own a company.
He stuck it in his wallet and carries it around to this day. This list doesn’t include any charts, graphs, numbers or dollar signs. It isn’t a strategy for dominating the competition or winning the lion’s share of the market. In fact, it doesn’t even include what kind of business Maxwell hoped to run.
The list, quite simply:
Love God.
Love my wife.
Love and provide for my children.
Be successful in business and use it as a platform to extend God’s kingdom.
And yet, despite the list’s lack of facts, figures and quotations from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” Maxwell’s back-pocket inspiration has led him to build a major player in the region’s fruit-packing industry. Today, Highland boasts more than 200 employees, and its products are used to ship fresh fruits both locally and as far away as Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe and New Zealand. The company has enjoyed 20% to 25% growth annually since Maxwell took over in 2005.
And now, in perhaps the company’s boldest move under Maxwell’s watch, it is moving its operating headquarters from Mulberry to Plant City. The company announced in May it signed a lease agreement for a 243,000-square-foot industrial building in Gordon Food Service’s Plant City distribution center. The move will bring more than 200 jobs to the community, and although all of those jobs currently are held by existing Highland employees, Maxwell says he expects to add more as the company grows.
The move will allow Highland to place two of its divisions — Highland Manufacturing and Highland Label — under one roof. Currently, those divisions are spread among four separate buildings, Maxwell said.
“We had been looking for about two years … and this was the only place large enough to put us all under one roof,” Maxwell says. “Raw materials will come in the back, and finished products will go out the front.”
TO TEXAS AND BACK
Maxwell, a Plant City native, has been fascinated with the farming industry since he was a teen-ager working on his grandfather’s farm in Cairo, Ga. There, he watched as his grandfather spent long days cultivating his fields of okra, tobacco, peanuts, watermelon, corn and soybeans.
Maxwell attended Plant City High School and married his high school sweetheart, Beverly. Maxwell, harboring a desire to see the world, then enlisted in the U.S. Navy. His service didn’t take him overseas but rather to Naval Air Station Chase Field in Beeville, Texas, a town boasting a whopping 6.1 square miles. There, Maxwell worked as an air traffic controller.
But, it turned out that Beeville would become the birthplace of Maxwell’s dream of owning a company. While in the Navy, he befriended fellow serviceman John Durham, an entrepreneur. Following his service, Maxwell worked with Durham in the oil industry.
“We have a close, close friendship,” Maxwell says. “We’ve both helped each other during hard times. We’ve gone to church together.”
In 1990, the Maxwells returned to Florida and began his career in produce, working in a potato shed with his brother-in-law in Immokalee. He later transferred to the tomato industry and finally to Ben Hill Griffin Inc., in 1994. Ultimately, he served as the company’s vice president of its fresh fruit division — a position he held until 2003. He joined Highland to learn the packaging industry and eventually purchase the business from founder and CEO Scott Fore.
“That nagging American dream was still alive,” Maxwell says.
In September 2004, Highland began its transitioning process, and on Feb. 18, 2005, Maxwell and Durham purchased the company.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
In addition to that list tucked in his wallet, Maxwell learned another governing lesson early in his produce career: Corporate America and the agricultural community do not mix.
In fact, without a proper leader who understands both, the two are in conflict.
Take, for example, Highland’s operating procedures during winter strawberry season, which Maxwell divides into two periods — December to mid-February and then mid-February to June. As soon as December hits, Maxwell needs to have ample inventory of his company’s clamshell packaging, and he needs to be able to deliver it quickly to customers ranging from large-scale companies to a single man operating one farm.
Then, as the season winds down, Highland must mirror that decline, so that it runs out of clamshells just as the season ends. It’s like trying to run out of gas in your car just as you reach your destination, Maxwell says.
“Our goal is to have zero inventory by the time the season shuts down,” he says.
Furthermore, all of this has to be done with customers whose needs can change drastically in a day. Depending on weather, the market and the retailers, Highland may have to change the size of its clamshell in a day. Or, it may receive an order at 5 p.m. on a Friday and need to fulfill it by the next morning.
“We need to embrace the demands of the agricultural community,” Maxwell says. “If we have an order come in late Friday and have to work Saturday, we consider that our time to shine.”
To that end, after taking over Highland, Maxwell expanded the company’s offerings. To assist smaller customers who may not have a marketing team or budget, in 2005, Maxwell added the Highland Label division, which provides graphic-design services to create and apply labels for customers’ products. Highland originally was purely a packing company, but in response to his customers’ needs, Maxwell also added manufacturing 2008.
“A customer can call at 7 a.m. and need labels and clamshells,” Maxwell says. “We can get those labels designed, printed and applied, and that customer can be packing that night.”
Finally, Highland Fresh Technologies, the agricultural chemical branch of the company, helps Highland customers with quality control and adhering to safety and sanitation requirements. That branch will remain in Polk County.
“We want to fill the gap between harvest and retail,” Maxwell says. “We want to be their most valued partner. We’re not a vendor; we’re a partner. And that’s the attitude we have here.”
THE FUTURE
With customers shipping strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and more, Highland has only a narrow window, September to November, to complete the move to Plant City. What’s more, Highland will remain in operation during the entire move to build inventory for the impending winter strawberry season.
Highland will move its manufacturing division first, followed by graphic design and, finally, its offices.
Maxwell anticipates the move to Plant City will allow for a much more streamlined process and, in turn, an opportunity to grow into new industries, including more fresh-cut produce, baked goods and more.
All the while, he plans to keep reinvesting into Highland, searching for the newest technologies and processes to deliver the highest-quality product available for his customers.
“You have to have that desire to want to get better,” Maxwell says. “We want to be the best plastic clamshell manufacturer in the world.”
Contact Michael Eng at meng@plantcityobserver.com.
AT A GLANCE
Highland Packaging Solutions
NEW ADDRESS: 1402 Gordon Food Service Drive
EMPLOYEES: About 200
WEBSITE: highcor.com
ONE-STOP SHOP
CEO Steve Maxwell has designed Highland Packaging Solutions to be able to offer a farmer everything he or she needs to get the harvest to a retail store.
The company’s manufacturing division can provide a myriad of plastic clamshell containers, mesh baskets and corrugated boxes. Its labeling division can design custom labels for the containers. Finally, its agricultural chemical branch can provide assistance to help customers meet safety and sanitation requirements.
HOMECOMING OF SORTS
CEO Steve Maxwell is a native of Plant City. He graduated from Plant City High School in 1980, and married his high school sweetheart, Beverly, who graduated a year earlier.
Together, the Maxwells have three children, Mallory, Megan and Marshall. The Maxwells will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary next April. They reside in Frostproof.
Beverly also assists at Highland as an event coordinator. She also will design the company’s new Plant City offices and plans Highland’s birthday luncheons.
Maxwell also serves as a leader in his church, president of the Frostproof Quarterback Club and is the vice chair of the Polk County Republican Executive Committee. He also serves on the board of directors for Warner University.