Business Operations

On a long flight home from a women’s business conference, Arbill CEO Julie Copeland and IPAK CEO Karen Primak fell into conversation about being mothers, CEOs, entrepreneurs and getting it all done. So when the COVID-19 crisis began, the two leaders—now good friends—knew they were the perfect collaborators to make an innovative safety product: a personal kit full of protective gear.

The idea: Though Arbill has a 75-year history of making and distributing safety products for industrial workers, when the pandemic hit, the company started thinking about protecting people in their everyday lives. It decided to produce an easy-to-ship kit of essential products, which employers could brand and purchase for their workers and customers—for use at home as well as at work.

The kit: Arbill’s team thought that shipping out bulk product was too impersonal. So IPAK, as a specialty packaging company collaborated with Arbill to package the protective products in a retail-like box. According to customers, employees appreciate the tailored presentation of the kit, which includes:

• Cloth masks: Arbill’s antimicrobial fabric masks, which protect users from particles as small as three microns, and can be washed over 50 times without losing their effectiveness. The masks also have high testing scores for breathability and are extremely comfortable.
• Cloth gloves: Instead of disposable gloves, Arbill developed a washable and reusable option for everyday use.
• Sanitizer: Arbill produced sanitizer that can be used on hands and surfaces, based on CDC recommendations.

Special delivery: Hundreds of thousands of these safety kits have already shipped to customers across the country. With millions of masks already made, and new orders in production, it’s clear these products have hit the mark. 

The last words: “IPAK’s ability to create custom packaging helped us take the industrial product category of safety and make it personal,” says Copeland. “The Truline Safety Kit now provides companies a wonderful way to connect with their employees. It’s compassionate, sensible and safe.”

“IPAK was open during the heat of the pandemic in NJ,” explains Primak. “7 percent of our workforce was infected before our governor declared a state of emergency in March. As an essential business, we were permitted to stay open…but the only way I would stay open was with the right protective products. Partnering with Julie and Arbill allowed me to protect IPAK personnel as well as help other companies protect their own employees. Since we have been using the fabric face coverings, we have not had another case of COVID.”