Somebody has to turn the launch plan into pallets, mailers and displays.
Contract packaging, kitting, direct mail and 3PL fulfillment in one 200,000 sq ft SQF-certified plant in Gurnee, Illinois. One inventory record. One contract. One audit. Your product only has to arrive once.
Your product arrives once and leaves three ways.
Cutaway drawing of the MGA plant in Gurnee, from MGA’s floor plan. Product arrives at receiving on the dock wall, is held in storage, through the staging area, is packed in the production area or by hand in the isolated production area, and comes back to one junction at the ship doors on the dock, where it leaves three ways: to the shelf, to the mailbox or to the doorstep. Each zone links to its page.
- Receive
Appointment, count, QC hold, lot capture. Customer-owned goods segregated by owner.
- Pack & kit
2a Production area2b Isolated production area
Machine lines and hand assembly across two production areas, including the 25,000 sq ft isolated production area.
- Hold
StorageS Staging area
Climate-controlled, controlled-access storage. Counts owner-scoped and lot-level.
- Ship
Retail freight, USPS induction off our own dock, or parcel to the consumer.
- To the Shelf
We're putting product on a retail shelf.
- To the Mailbox
We're mailing to a list or running a sampling program.
- To the Doorstep
We ship to consumers, one order at a time.
Receiving, packaging, kitting, storage and shipping run against a single owner-scoped inventory record — so the lot that came off the truck is still traceable when it reaches a shelf, a mailbox or a doorstep. One building, one account manager, and no inter-vendor freight between any two stages.
- Plant
- 200,000 sq ft
- Isolated production area
- 25,000 sq ft
- Food safety
- SQF certified
- USPS
- Premier USPS Customer
- Mail approvals
- Approved for Optional Procedure · Approved for commingling
- Monitoring
- Controlled access, video monitored 24/7/365
Destinations
Start where your product ends up.
Three exits from one building. Pick the one that sounds like your program — each page lists the processes and machines behind it and opens a brief already scoped to it. Programs that cross two or three exits are what the one building is for.
To the Shelf
“We're putting product on a retail shelf.”
- Retail co-packing
- Cartoning
- Overwrapping
- Shrink wrapping
- POP displays
- Promotional packaging
- Bespoke packaging
The argument
Most brands buy this from three vendors.
A co-packer, a lettershop and a 3PL. Each handoff is freight, a reconciliation, a contract and a break in the lot trail — and nobody owns the date.
| Dimension | Three vendors | One roof |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory record | Three reports, none authoritative | One record, owner-scoped, lot-level |
| Freight between stages | Two inter-vendor moves, each a damage and delay risk | None — product moves across the floor |
| Contracts & insurance | Three contracts, three COIs | One contract, one COI |
| Audits | Three supplier audits, three corrective-action loops | One site, one certificate |
| Lot traceability | Breaks at every handoff | Receipt to proof of delivery, unbroken |
| Owner of the date | Nobody | Your account manager, by name |
Customer stories
What our customers are saying
Three programs we ran end to end, each written up as a case study. Reynolds: Sampling a whole metro area ahead of a retail launch; A leading diaper brand: Taking a diaper brand to number one on shelf in Canada; Sanofi: An OTC sample program engineered around the postage rate. The clients quoted here, in full, are on Clients. Read all customer stories.
We've been working with the team at MGA for the last 28 years… and from my POV, no one works with a company that long unless it's ultimately a 'partnership' relationship vs a 'vendor' relationship. MGA has earned a partnership relationship with Brandshare, as they consistently deliver unique solutions to our creative ideas, helping to bring these ideas to life for our key clients… and they are not a 9:01am to 4:59pm partner… they make it happen based on our clients' timeline, not theirs.
Co-Founder and Director of Strategic Development, Brandshare
MGA has been a strategic warehouse and fulfillment partner since 2017. Working together, we have created a more cost effective, efficient process that delivers consistent, high quality service to our subscription box clients.
Vice President, Continuum
Marketing Production Services
We have worked with MGA for over 3 years and they have offered incredible service from the outset. The team at MGA are so incredibly helpful and have been excellent partners.
Product sampling
MGA provides excellent customer service, competitive pricing and flexibility to meet our customers' demand.
PPI Beauty
Clients
Strong partnerships
Client register
Unique in our services
Packaging, kitting and mail from one plant. Every process, machine by machine, is in the capability reference.
Retail co-packing
Scalable to handle your specific project scope, our contract packaging services include a variety of high-speed, comprehensive product packaging methods. With the ability to handle every step of the process from packaging manufacturing to assembly, we’ll quickly and correctly get your deliverables to their destinations.
Contract packaging
We know your products need personalization to maximize their effectiveness in the marketplace. That’s why we have the ability to provide custom contract packaging for your order. Our full-service solutions are cost effective no matter your request. From design to distribution, we’ll make it happen.
Overwrapping
Safe and secure product packaging every time, all the time. Overwrapping is completed with modern packaging equipment so your products are ready for sale when they arrive. Our capabilities also include cartoning, shrink wrapping, blister packaging, plastic bagging, kitting, counter, club and pallet displays, and more.
Subscriptions & kitting
Businesses with product distribution and order fulfillment needs are increasingly turning to kitting. Kitting is the process of combining multiple items into a single marketable product to reduce shipping expenses, SKUs, customer response times, and more. Read about subscription boxes.
Direct mail
Reach targeted audiences through direct mail advertising. We are a Premier USPS Customer with unique automated processes and services. Die-cut mailers, mailers with coupon codes, gift card mailers and gluing services are just some of the personalized tools available to enhance your marketing strategy.
The plant
Gurnee, Illinois. One building.
Two production areas — the main floor with its machine lines, and a 25,000 sq ft isolated production area for hand assembly — plus climate-controlled storage and a dock that inducts mail directly into the USPS. Walk the plant or read the full capability reference.
- Address
- 3818 Grandville Avenue, Gurnee, IL 60031
- Location
- A few miles from Waukegan National Airport, a little over 30 miles from O’Hare, just under 60 miles from Midway
- Climate
- Climate-controlled
- Cartoning
- Kodiak vertical cartoners · Adco semi-automatic horizontal cartoner · PMI Kyoto semi-automatic vertical cartoner
- Overwrapping
- Fuji overwrappers
- Shrink wrapping
- 3 × Shanklin shrink wrappers
- Labeling
- Label Airs
- Kitting
- Portable custom-built assembly lines
- Hand assembly
- Hand-assembly stations in the isolated production area
- Affixing and gluing
- Hot-melt glue systems · Gluing lines with mobile units
- Inserting and lettershop
- Automatic insertion machines
- Inkjet printing and addressing
- Inkjet printing · Address systems
Credentials
Certified and approved.
Anything a supplier-quality or procurement review needs beyond these, ask us, or see it for yourself at a pre-award audit. Certifications · USPS mail operations · Book a pre-award audit
- SQF certified
- Premier USPS Customer
- Approved for Optional Procedure
- Approved for commingling
Systems
One inventory record.
What runs today: EDI with retailers and trading partners, and real-time inventory by SKU and lot. The detail is on Systems.
EDI
Live. Purchase orders, invoices, requests for quotes, routing instructions and real-time inventory status exchanged with retailers, distributors and trading partners, without paper.
Real-time inventory
Live. Owner-scoped counts by SKU and lot, for product entering the plant and packages leaving it: where your stock is, how it got there, how long it has been there, and whether an item is running low.
Order-capture pages
Delivered on Sanofi’s Xyzal program. Landing pages that collect sample requests: on that program, the page ended duplicate requests and gave the client request data in real time.
Who we are
Solutions for accelerated demands
Packaging supply chains require absolute efficiency to handle the modern digital and storefront buying habits of today’s consumer. MGA Innovation makes it easy for partners to meet ever-evolving demands. How do we do it? Ingenuity and flexibility to help you shape quality, food safety and the complete customer experience.
Behind that is one building. Contract packaging, lettershop and direct mail, and 3PL fulfillment happen under one roof in Gurnee, Illinois: against the same inventory record, for the same account manager, with USPS Optional Procedure induction off the same dock. Most brands assemble that from three vendors.
Experience
Unmatched resources. Unparalleled results.
The modern era of retail, commercial and trade production relies on partnerships rooted in experience. MGA has the capabilities to deliver.
- 60 years of success in the contract packaging industry.
- Clients include some of the largest retailers and biggest names in consumer packaged goods.
- A philosophy to continue evolving with the needs of consumers and the demands of the industry.
- An SQF-certified plant.
- Solutions tailored to you and your needs.
Categories we pack for include beverage and food products, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, household items, cleaning supplies, pet products and paper products.
Let’s get started
Tell us about your project and we’ll help find the best solution for you. The brief is three steps — where it ends up, the job, and terms — and you can attach a spec instead of typing it. Prefer email? info@mgainnovation.com. Prefer to talk it through? Call 224.656.6730.