Terri Wailes

I've spent about 33 years in the packaging industry, and I've truly sold just about every component there is. I started as a distributor rep at a small Mom and Pop Dallas-Houston distributor called Apollo Paper, selling everything from tape to bubble wrap to peanuts to corrugated boxes and Ziploc bags. When that company was sold to a major corporation, it led to a bigger account presence where we could go after bigger accounts, so I sold equipment and films. That experience led me to become a manufacturer's rep for corrugated, and eventually to my current focus on retail folding cartons - the boxes that products like Bluebell ice cream sandwiches, cereal, toothpaste, and other consumer packaged goods come in. My main expertise right now is folding cartons, but I could easily jump back into corrugated or flexible packaging like those stand-up Ziploc pouches if I needed to. I'm a packaging freak - every time I'm in the grocery store, I look for brands I've never seen, check where they're manufactured, look them up, and give them a call to hopefully get an audience with them. My typical day involves maintaining existing accounts, always looking for new business, and growing my pipeline. One of my biggest achievements was landing the HelloFresh account when they first came to the United States - my boss and I actually redesigned their corrugated shipper box, and I think they still use that design today.