Corrugated board may not be perceived as the most glamorous of packaging materials, but that hasn’t kept it from becoming one of the most widely used. Together with paperboard, it provides the base material for more than one-third of all packaging produced. Adding versatility and verve to the substrate’s many other attractions is the principal business of Axis Corrugated Container, a packaging company that pushes the boundaries of corrugated board in both standard containers and customized specialty products.

In a 70,000-sq.-ft. plant in Butner, NC, Axis manufactures cartons with single-, double-, or triple-walled corrugated board strengthened between the layers by flutes—arch-like stiffeners that give packages made of corrugated board their exceptional weight-bearing capability. The packages can be buttressed with additives and coatings that block moisture, oil, and grease; add scuff resistance; and eliminate static. Scott Russell, president of the company, notes that corrugated board packaging also enjoys the highest rate of recovery from the waste stream among all packaging materials.

This combination of merits suits corrugated board to a wide variety of consumer and non-consumer packaging applications. Axis meets requirements for corrugated containers in four principal markets: non-durables (food and beverages); non-food non-durables (examples are paper, textiles, and chemicals); non-manufacturing (packaging for wholesaling, retailing, and distribution); and durables (heavy manufactured items that need extra-large, extra-strong boxes). Non-durables is the most reliably growing of the four, says Russell, given that nearly half of all packaging is food- or beverage-related and that demand at the supermarket is perennial.