A brown box verses a non-brown box.Louie Dejesus -- CEO and president of Third Dimensions Inc., a custom product packaging company -- would argue the…
A brown box verses a non-brown box.
Louie Dejesus — CEO and president of Third Dimensions Inc., a custom product packaging company — would argue the package design makes all the difference.
“They have to go through the package to get to the product,” Dejesus said. “It’s the last contact with the customer. Seventy-five percent of buying decisions is made at the store level. With that in mind, you have to start branding.”
Third Dimensions was the focus of the Geauga Growth Partnership Success Breakfast June 12, which approximately 60 people attended. It was hosted at the company’s new Middlefield location on state Route 87, where Shade Tree Powersports used to be.
Company 119 hosted the question-and-answer portion of the event, which was followed by a tour of the facility.
Born in Puerto Rico before moving to Geneva, Ohio at age 3, Dejesus started in the packaging business 51 years ago at age 10. His parents had a small boarding house business and he would help his mother pack the lunch bags for the men, all by 5:15 a.m.
From that experience, Dejesus learned many core values he implemented into his own company. Those include meeting the customer’s demands on time, thinking up fresh ideas and maintaining high standards for products.
For business relations, he learned to build up a qualified team and lead by example, and to emphasize the customer-business relationship.
Dejesus founded Third Dimensions in 1985 as a non-traditional packaging company. After 31 years in the business, he has never lost an account.
“We started it to meet what we perceived as an unfilled service need,” Dejesus wrote in an email. “I understood that paper-based packaging cannot be the only packaging solutions.
“I wanted to build a packaging company that was very free thinking, by taking into account all the possible materials to solve packaging problems.”
With a “stand out, think different” mentality, Third Dimension deals with all parts of the packaging business, intent on increasing brand awareness with one-of-a-kind promotions.
“Anything that has to do with packaging, we touch,” Dejesus said.
Third Dimension, which employs about 100 people and has over 80 clients, has locations in Middlefield, Geneva and Charlotte, N.C.
The Middlefield location was chosen because “the base of our business is in Geauga and Cuyahoga (counties) and we wanted to build this innovation center close to this base. This center is for our customer to use as a solution center,” Dejesus wrote.
He is married with three children, and his son, Kyle, runs the Charlotte operation. He said that location “will be one of the most advanced, totally digital packaging operation in the country.”
This cutting-edge business is always trying to stay a step ahead of everyone, Dejesus said, adding they are working on a new website and always looking to expand.
He said packaging companies have to be “more mobilized and address regional needs.”
“The packaging industry is really changing” Dejesus said at the breakfast. “Those people not embracing that change will suffer.”
He wrote there are many new needs to address, like the reduction of mass production due to customization, and keeping up with local and regional demands.
“How do you promote your brand in the crowded shelf space?” he wrote.
The quality of the packaging is just as essential as the design, Dejesus said, adding all of Third Dimensions’ materials are green-certified, so there is also very little waste.
“We’re providing not only a way to deliver your product safely, but also a way to promote branding,” he said.
Dejesus said the most important goal is to deliver the product with near zero damage, but most companies don’t realize the package’s importance.
“The package can enhance your brand or it can damage your brand,” he wrote. “Companies should not waste any opportunity to communicate with their customers.”
GGP President Tracy Jemison said after the breakfast he hoped the audience learned how important the customer is.
Jemison met Dejesus about three years ago through John Epprecht, the current chairman of the GGP’s board of directors. Dejesus got involved with GGP after success with the Ashtabula Growth Partnership, Jemison said.
“I heard his story an entrepreneur is an entrepreneur,” he said. “We hear time and time again about successful companies and it’s all about customer service. And that’s what we heard today — how they treat that customer. Great lessons today for our audience.
“How he thinks — no pun intended — outside of the box that’s what you have to do. You can’t stay status quo. And if there are young entrepreneurs, if there is someone in the audience today that is thinking about starting a business, I hope that they got that motivation from Louie.”
