A family-run packaging supplier, 13 years into the work.

Rupala Industrial Supply Co. started in the spring of 2011 in a 4,200-square-foot leased bay off Highway 641, just north of Almo. Phyllis Owens had spent fourteen years selling industrial packaging for a national distributor and watched the small accounts — the 50-pallet-a-month manufacturers, the family co-ops, the local 3PLs — get squeezed out as that company chased larger contracts.

Phyllis figured those accounts deserved better. She rented the bay, signed accounts with two stretch-film mills and a regional corrugated converter, and called the first ten customers herself. By Christmas of 2012 the bay was full. By 2016 we'd moved to our current 19,000-square-foot facility on Candlelite Drive. The same handful of customers who signed up in year one are still on the route today.

The team now is eight people: Phyllis runs the business and handles the largest accounts; Cole leads wrap and strapping programs; Marlene keeps the books and handles inside sales; and a five-person warehouse team picks, packs, drives, and (when needed) helps a customer swap out a stuck stretch wrap dispenser at 4:55 PM on a Friday.

We have no plans to grow much beyond where we are. Our job is to be the most reliable packaging supplier in our corner of the Midwest, not the biggest. If you call and ask for an unusual size or a sample roll, we'll find a way to make it work.