News & Updates

Year in Review: 2019

These past 12 months has been transformative for Morcon and have positioned us to become a National Alternative to the Majors. Morcon Tissue has been in the paper converting industry for close to 35 years and yet each year, we are breaking records. How is that possible? We owe many thanks to our collaborative partners, amazing customers, and hardworking employees. Our journey has been exhilarating, fulfilling, and at times…challenging. Along the way, we have had a very simple, singular focus: to get better in all we do each day while echoing our “More service, More value” way.

More Service:

Our third site in Tulsa, Oklahoma became fully operational in Q1 of 2019. As a result, we were able to kick off the year with greater capacity with the addition of a state-of-the-art United Converting S-70 Industrial winder. This allowed Morcon to service more customers, expand our geographic footprint and build new strategic partnerships. With this greater capacity and volume, we were able to introduce 10 new products over the past year and expand our portfolio. The Tulsa facility will add over one million “new” cases per year of capacity to Morcon in Roll Towels, JRT and Specialty Tissue.  Beginning the week of 1/20/20, Tulsa will be running three shifts, which will allow us to realize the benefit of this strategic investment.


Our Tulsa, Oklahoma Facility

At our Corporate HQ, located in Upstate NY, we completed moving our operations and offices to a new, more spacious location – without disrupting our service levels. This has been a big change for the better. In our SC plant, continuous improvements throughout the production facility including a new slitter room, improved converting machines, wrappers, and more, have greatly enhanced the look and feel of our products.

More Value: 

Morcon is always looking for ways to bring additional value to our customers. Focusing on talent acquisition allows us to do just that. In 2019, we were privileged enough to add some great folks who brought significant industry experience. Two additions to the sales force, Krysta Davis and Chris Wagner, will allow us to help our partners grow profitable share in 2020 and identify new and strategic partnerships to complement our existing customer base. Our marketing team also grew with the addition of Evelyn Simental, a new fresh-faced graduate from University of South Carolina beginning her career here at Morcon as the Sales and Marketing Coordinator. Karen Jones, VP of Finance, brings years of experience from Fortune 500 manufacturing companies. Karen will be leading and transforming our Finance Operations in 2020.

Morcon is also proud to announce the promotion of both Rosa Zimmerman and Lisbeth Simental.  Rosa and Lisbeth were both recognized for their hard work and dedication in their accounting and human resource fields respectively and we are excited to see them grow within their careers at Morcon.

Morcon is a Safe Bet:

This past November, the Sales and Marketing team participated in the annual ISSA how in Las Vegas. This was our fourth time participating in this event and as always, we enjoyed connecting with customers to better understand how Morcon can bring more value and more service to their organizations in 2020. Being able to explore industry specific innovations, meet with our partners and discover future customers across the nation is quite the experience. Our team took the ISSA’s innovation theme to heart as we were able to soft launch MORaccess, our web-app, and showcase it on branded kiosks throughout our booth space. This is a step into the digital world where we can now offer product information at users’ fingertips. We loved seeing the excitement towards the app as attendees explored our products and played the Morcon Matching game! Everyone who participated had the chance to win their very own poo-shaped stress ball. Overall, the ISSA Show was a 10/10 for Morcon Tissue!

MORaccess:

Introduced at ISSA, MORaccess was created to be an extension of our sales force. It is a tool that conveniently displays Morcon products, marketing collateral, and competitive guides all in one place. This iCatalog will complement our physical marketing collateral and give users real-time access to critical product information. All users have access to this iCatalog through his or her smart devices. Our team worked diligently to bring this idea to life and we are extremely proud of their efforts and ability to continue to rise to the challenge of separating Morcon from the pack. Access this digital catalog at icatalog.morcontissue.com or simply press the “product catalog” button on the header of our website.

Here is a screenshot of the “Our Products” section on the new digital product catalog

Commitment to Customers:

A new plant, a new HQ location, and even the introduction of new products were projects that Morcon completed in 2019 to better service partners and customers. We went through great lengths to make sure that our customers came first this year; and even though we had many internal changes, we managed to service our customers without fail. We even managed to break our own sales records for the sixth year in a row! As a result, Morcon Tissue was awarded the 2019 U.S. Small Business of the Year Award for the Manufacturing industry. This would not have been possible without the tremendous hard work of our team members. Our team truly believes the customer is always at the top of the triangle, but our employees are right there with them.

 

VP of Revenue Management, Phil Hart, accepting the SBA Award at the 2019 luncheon

Giving Back:

Community involvement is something that has been ingrained in the Morcon way and this year was no exception. We were able to donate various paper products to the Cambridge Food Bank. A new partnership with the Food Pantries for the Capital District coalition also allowed us to donate towel, tissue and napkin products just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday! These were dispersed across the region.

 

Morcon Family:

Speaking of the best things from 2019, one of the greatest would have to be our Morcon family. Across all three facilities, we celebrated in many different, fun, weird, and special holidays. Employee engagement is such a key part of everyday life here at Morcon.  We all participated in raising awareness for breast cancer with our annual spirit week in October. Over the summer, we celebrated our teams with a day at the ballpark. All facilities gathered at their local AAA baseball stadium to enjoy a day of baseball, food, and fun! The holiday season was no exception for us as we held company wide holiday lunches as well as an ugly Christmas sweater day. If you want to follow us and see all the fun things that we do, be sure to like and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn @morcontissue!

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What the future holds in 2020:

We thank you for a great year. With our employees, customers, vendors and partners by our side, we are looking forward to all of the opportunities 2020 will bring! Morcon will continue to raise our game with continuous improvement initiatives, supply chain efficiencies, equipment purchases, and talent acquisition. We hope you continue to roll with us this year and beyond!

 

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