As the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) entered 2025, the trade organization began celebrating 75 years since its formation in 1950. For Kathy Bolhous, chair and CEO of Charter Next Generation, FPA’s staying power proves that members have been getting value all along.
“We are stronger together,” says Bolhous, who served as FPA chair from 2020 to 2022. “No one of us can do the work that needs to be done alone. When we come together as an association, we all have the same interest in protecting and promoting our industry. We can achieve more than as a single company.”
Since its founding, FPA has gained stature as an industry leader in advocacy, sustainability, and collaboration, according to those who have been involved with the association in recent decades. Earlier this year, FlexPack VOICE® reached out to some of those leaders to discuss FPA’s progress and to peek into the future.
Finding a Voice
Former FPA President and CEO Alison Keane joined FPA in 2016, intrigued by the synergies between packaging and her experience with coatings, chemicals of concern, and extended producer responsibility (EPR) proposals. When interviewing for the top position, she made one point clear: If the board didn’t want to build FPA’s capacity for federal and state advocacy, she wasn’t the person for the job.
“The board saw those headwinds, as well,” Keane says now. She led a survey of never-members and former members of FPA about their reasons for not joining. They said they wanted extra value—and that included advocacy. However, supporting an advocacy pillar required an increase in dues. Deep conversations and strategic planning helped convince skeptics, and Keane was surprised when the dues hike advanced with little pushback.
“It was quite empowering,” she says. “Everybody was aligned. They were willing to put their skin and money in the game and let the staff go forward and conquer.”
Lobbyists were hired and began connecting with lawmakers, and FPA created FlexPACTM, a political action committee that has been gaining steam in the past year. New communications efforts have included FlexPack VOICE® magazine and the Perfect Packaging campaign, which raises awareness about the role of flexible packaging in the products that consumers eat, drink, and use.
“Unifying our voices through one strong, clear advocacy coalition, FPA worked diligently to represent and protect the members’ mutual interests in flexible packaging, its sales and market growth, and the promotion of our industry,” says Peter Schottland, American Packaging Corporation’s (APC’s) executive chair of the board and former CEO. A former FPA board member, Schottland was FPA board chair in 2006. In recent years, FPA has worked to “engage, educate, and advocate to the U.S. government” on the impact that aluminum tariffs have had on the industry and consumer brands, he adds.
Along the way, FPA also has worked closely with other advocacy organizations, including the material-inclusive and policy-focused AMERIPEN—the American Institute for Packaging and the Environment. Dan Felton, former leader of AMERIPEN, was tapped as FPA’s new president and CEO after Keane left in 2024 to take the top job at another association. Other collaborations have included working with the Product Stewardship Institute to create a report titled “Shared Elements for EPR Legislation,” as well as the Circular Action Alliance, a producer responsibility organization involved with EPR programs in several states.
Such involvement has always mattered to APC and has grown more important over the past two decades because “the flexible packaging industry faces many more complex challenges that are best addressed collectively,” Schottland says.
Joyce Dickerson retired as director of research and development at RJR Packaging, the packaging division of RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company. She became involved with FPA as a board proxy for her RJR mentor, Jerry West, in 1987 and then replaced him on the board in the early 1990s. She would go on to serve as treasurer, vice chair, and chair of FPA’s board.
“A major emphasis at this time was the public opinion of plastic packaging as ‘bad’ for the environment,” she recalls. A major public relations campaign included seminars developed for educators nationwide by archaeologist William Rathje, Ph.D., University of Arizona’s “garbology” expert, and Robert Testin, Ph.D., director of Clemson University’s packaging science program in South Carolina. Such events helped “inform educators about the effect of plastic packaging on the environment.”
Sustainability Mindset
FPA’s advocacy was a key factor in honing the messaging of an industry that “buried its head in the sand for 20 years” while its environmental reputation deteriorated, says Fredy Steng. Until recently, Steng was the longtime sales director for Berry Global and first joined FPA in the 1970s.
“The legislative side has become so important today, and FPA is really working to meet the needs of the membership in that area,” Steng says. “The big one is educating the public on what flexible packaging is all about. That’s really the mission here.”
By the time Keane joined FPA, the ecology movement was entrenched in U.S. society, but the industry was letting brand owners take the lead in sustainability messaging, she says.
“That wasn’t loud enough and wasn’t representative enough of what we needed to get across,” she says.
FPA shifted to creating social media messaging; launching PerfectPackaging.org; and producing publications on pathways to circularity, the shared elements of EPR legislation for packaging, and life cycle assessments. All were designed to support members while helping consumers and lawmakers view flexible packaging through the lens of its holistic environmental impact.
FPA even brought brand owners back into the communications stream, collaborating on messages reminding consumers that sustainable packaging was inherent with the products they love such as that daily granola bar.
“The people in flexible packaging were making innovations daily, not just for food safety and shelf impact and medical devices, but also to protect the product to ensure it gets to you and stays fresh or sterile as long as you need it to,” Keane says.
Many milestones of FPA’s evolution have aligned with the growing emphasis on environmental issues. Schottland’s list of the key markers of FPA’s maturity includes opposing bans on single-use packaging; engaging in regulatory changes; influencing current and pending U.S. Environmental Protection Agency legislation; and advocating for uniform state and national sustainability legislation, policies, and guidelines.
As sustainability occupies “the forefront of everything we do today,” reciting the facts about flexible packaging’s lower environmental footprint “isn’t good enough,” Bolhous says. FPA is the entity behind a shift, as the industry creates more sustainable packaging while educating consumers about the power of flexible packaging to reduce waste, she says.
“There’s been much more focus on promoting the value of flexible packaging and really educating consumers on why our product is so critical to the economy,” Bolhous says.
Long History of Connections
When Steng started attending FPA meetings in the early 1970s, his company, which was to become Union Carbide, was pioneering polyethylene (PE). Then, PE was “in its infancy,” and most FPA members were converters producing bags.
“We were one of 10 extruders in the United States,” Steng says. “It was a small industry. Technology was limited. We were all regionally based.”
FPA was a venue for making connections and spotting trends, he adds.
“There weren’t any issues to speak of,” Steng says. “The government wasn’t involved. The goal was to bring converters in and share common interests. We were in FPA for the learning, and we did learn. We developed relationships with our suppliers and competitors. We were all being educated as the industry was growing.”
Flexible packaging was new to Bolhous when she brought her executive experience to packaging in 2006. At her first FPA meeting, she immediately recognized the “close-knit industry” she was entering.
“As an outsider, you thought, ‘Everyone in this room knows everybody,’” she says. “Even though you have competitors there, I found it to be a very collegial, welcoming environment for newcomers.”
And, Bolhous adds, “people don’t leave this industry. I still reach out to people through the relationships we’ve built.”
Dickerson also notes FPA’s close-knit membership and its power to create a safe space where competitors could discuss their shared challenges. They focused on growing the industry as well as their own companies because “any regulations that impacted one impacted all.”
“Involvement with FPA allowed interaction with competitors to work for the betterment of the entire packaging industry,” she says. “Friendships were formed with colleagues while being careful not to violate ethical and legal standards.”
Members have been integral to shaping FPA’s agenda and ethos, Keane says.
“Without the members’ information and support, we could not have accomplished what we did in such a short amount of time,” she says.
“And the ‘small but mighty’ staff, including myself, always felt empowered and buoyed by the membership, which made for great culture.”
Members can support FPA by getting involved, Keane adds.
“Sit on a committee or serve on the board,” she says. “Make sure the association has the information and knowledge of the industry necessary to represent you. Participation is really the only way you can ensure that the organization is not only serving your current needs but also looking toward future needs and opportunities.”
FPA’s power to foster stability in the industry gives members the assurance needed to devote resources and time toward community impact. APC, for instance, has built “a cherished relationship” with the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, devoting financial support and employee participation to Paul Newman’s camp for children with chronic illnesses. The corporation also supports nonprofits meeting educational, health, nutrition, disaster relief, and other community needs.
“As you look across the profiles of the FPA member companies, you see that nearly all of the members have been able to extend philanthropy to organizations and communities together, as we make significant contributions to help others around us,” Schottland says.
Focused on the Future
Steng remembers FPA annual meetings that attracted big-name entertainment and concluded with Friday night dances. Times have changed as younger members wanted to get home to their families for the weekend, but he says FPA’s purpose remains relevant and crucial. He hopes to see FPA continue to expand membership, attracting more converters and PE bag makers, especially as mergers and acquisitions shrink the number of traditional, dues-paying members. In the meantime, he sees an association still focused on policies, practices, and trends that drive a global, essential industry.
“We don’t know what the new presidential administration is going to do if anything, so you have to stay tuned,” he says. “That’s why a trade association takes the lead.”
Keane says FPA has built the agility to navigate today’s fluid economic climate.
Key issues include trade; immigration; and “misguided attempts” by states to regulate recycling, mandate labeling, and ban chemicals of concern that don’t pose a health risk in packaging. FPA’s own work with its lobbying team and strategic partnerships with other influential associations, from the American Chemistry Council to the National Association of Manufacturers, will continue strengthening the policy foundation, she says.
As always, FPA remains the voice of the flexible packaging industry, Schottland says, so he encourages member involvement. Jeff Koch, former American Packaging CEO, and Ray Graham, current American Packaging CEO and president, represent American Packaging on the FPA board, and the company ded-icates two representatives to FPA’s Emerging Leader-ship Council.
“Each of us needs to value and maintain our FPA membership as well as remain very actively engaged and promote the progress we make together,” Schottland says. “Encouraging others to join FPA to keep it growing and strong will advance the livelihood of the flexible packaging industry.”
Bolhous reminds members to “lean in” and support FPA with their dues, their time, and their voices.
“It’s a great association,” she says. “It’s one of those where the more you give, the more you get back. If everyone does that, we’ll all succeed together.”
M. Diane McCormick is a writer and editor based in Pennsylvania.
Sidebar: Something to Celebrate
Anniversary celebrations during FPA’s Annual Meeting in March included testimonial videos, a decade-by-decade storybook, and homages to multigenerational companies and longstanding members.
“We wouldn’t be here without them, so it’s important to pay tribute to their partnership with FPA,” says Danielle Reigle, senior account executive for The Cyphers Agency, FPA’s longtime marketing strategist.
“I work with a lot of associations, and FPA is very good at involving their membership. They are very engaged. They really care.”
For more about the anniversary, go to fpa75.com.