May 27, 2026

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BW Packaging Team Member Newsletter

Your monthly source for updates, spotlights, and progress across BW Packaging.

For internal use only – do not forward.
 

In This Edition 

• Mid-Year Update from BW Packaging President, Rachana Creeth
• Launching “Packaging Connect” Meetings
• Innovation Spotlight: Connected Equipment Initiative
• Teams Enabling Success: Spotlight on the People Team
• Meet our APAC Commercial Team
• Market News: Competitor & Industry Trends
• Recognizing Commercial & Operational Partnership: Delivering for Reynolds
• Barry-Wehmiller CEO Kyle Chapman Visiting Packaging Sites

Mid-Year Update from BW Packaging President, Rachana Creeth

Team, 

I am excited that we hit our 1H EBITDA target and earned our first WE program payout with over $1 million distributed to Team Members on our WE incentive program. 

Congratulations! Every single one of you made this happen. 

This milestone proves what’s possible when we are aligned, focused, and executing as one team. It makes “winning now” tangible and gives us a clear line of sight to what we can become. 

The past eight months were not easy as we navigated coming together as One Packaging, but there are significant signs of progress. I am seeing more of our teams: 

• Putting customers at the center of our decisions
• Operating as one Packaging team with product lines as our dominant axis
• Exercising cost discipline to ensure we can self-fund growth initiatives
• Seeing people thrive as we deepen our commitment to ensuring the right people are in the right roles 

Also, I am deeply grateful for the engagement we had in this year’s Every Voice Matters (EVM) survey. Packaging showed an incredible level of engagement as we've come together as one team. Thank you for taking the time to share your perspectives. Participation is important, but what matters most is how we act on what we hear. Over the coming months, Chapman & Co. will be reviewing the feedback across Barry-Wehmiller to identify key opportunities and themes. We are committed to sharing what we learn, and the actions we plan to take. We expect to have Packaging specific insights to begin communicating to our teams in July.

Looking ahead to the second half of the year, we have clear goals. I hope you are thinking about how the work you are doing every day helps Packaging be successful. If you are not sure, I encourage you to speak to your leader as all of us are needed for Packaging to reach its full potential.

2H26 Goals

BOOK $200M

of new machinery orders

Fill the pipeline that feeds the rest of the year — and next.

SHIP on time and on cost while merging two US ERPs

$230M

Machinery

$180M

Aftermarket

2H26 EBITDA Goal $54.2M

I am grateful for every one of you. When we stay disciplined, act as one, and deliver on our commitments, to our customers and each other, we win.

With appreciation, 

Rachana Creeth 

President, BW Packaging

Launching “Packaging Connect” Meetings

In the April Town Hall, we announced that we are ramping up “Packaging Connect” meetings. These meetings have three goals:

1. Enable team members to gain a deeper understanding of BW Packaging’s strategy
2. Drive more connectivity across the organization
3. Help our team members grow and develop

There will be two types of completely optional meetings:

• Monthly sessions for all team members focused on knowledge sharing, including deeper dives into key initiatives and personal development topics.
• Monthly sessions for people leaders focused on leadership development—because all team members deserve a great leader. If you are not currently a people leader but would like to be invited for your development, please reach out to Stephanie Mullee.

Meeting invites for the above sessions have been scheduled and you can see the full list below – hope to see you there!

Packaging Connect – Upcoming Sessions (All sessions 8:30-9:30am CT)

Leader Sessions

• Tue, Jul 7 | Leader Standard Work – Karl Odegaard (Pete Carlson) 
• Tue, Jul 21 | Successful Onboarding – Jessica Rogers
• Tue, Aug 4 | Ownership Mindset / Vision – Rachana Creeth 

Team Member Sessions

• Tue, Jun 16 | Customer-Focused Mindset – Matt Venezia
• Tue, Jun 23 | Finance Basics – Heath Eckert
• Tue, Jun 30 | End of Line Solutions – Denning Saum
• Tue, Jul 28 | Flexible Packaging Strategy – Mark Bogucki
• Tue, Aug 11 | Strategy Deployment – Geoff Nykin and Bill Turner
• Tue, Aug 25 | Rigid Packaging Strategy – Marco Azzaretti

Innovation Spotlight: Connected Equipment Initiative

BW Packaging is expanding its digital capabilities with the Connected Equipment Initiative, led by the Innovation – Controls team. Built on the foundation of OpView™, this initiative extends our focus from intuitive machine operation to insight and connectivity beyond the factory floor, providing customers real-time visibility into how their BW equipment is performing.

What We’re Working On

In collaboration with Innovation Engineering, Product, and Service & Parts teams, the team is focused on practical, repeatable use cases that deliver immediate value: 

• Secure connectivity and real-time production metrics
• Machine health monitoring and alarm history
• Parameter history that gives Service teams better context around downtime and support
• Laying the groundwork for machine-learning models that will identify patterns, surface opportunities earlier, and ultimately support smarter equipment design.

Where We Are Today

BW Packaging is currently live with Greenyard and two additional customers, with several more opportunities in progress. Each engagement is intentionally scoped to align customer needs with operational maturity and a clearly defined path to value. Work is also underway with Pepsi around a connected parts program, and with Nestlé to explore a specific machine-learning application on the UltraStar G2.

Why It Matters

Together, OpView™ and the Connected Equipment Initiative help customers run better today while building the insight needed to improve performance over time, thus creating deeper life-cycle value for our equipment and strengthening BW Packaging’s position as a long-term strategic partner.

Interested in learning more? Please email Joe Ambrose

Teams Enabling Success: Spotlight on the People Team

This month we are starting a new “mini-series” in which we spotlight the key teams enabling success of those in Packaging, starting with our People organization. The goal of this is to provide transparency into the strategy of each team and how they are working hard to help Packaging reach its full potential. 

If you have questions, please reach out to Jessica or your local People partner.

Partnering with leaders to collaborate, share expertise, and deliver aligned strategies and initiatives that drive continuous improvement and foster our culture of people and performance in harmony.

Leader

Jessica (Lyons) Rogers

EVP, People

Priorities

Success Measures

Meet our APAC Commercial Team

This month, we are proud to introduce our newly established APAC Commercial Team, reporting to Jean-Félix Lesueur, Vice President, Commercial - EMEA & APAC, created to strengthen our presence and expand our footprint across our major brands in the region. Led by Thierry Kostuch, the team represents the full breadth of our portfolio in Greater China/APAC, with a strong focus on growing our installed base and unlocking cross-selling opportunities across brands. 

• Thierry Kostuch – Sales Director, New Equipment & Services Asia-Pacific
• Hélène Jin – Sales Representative APAC 
• Qu Chu (Simon) – Sales Representative China Market
• Cade Chen – Service and technical engineer 
• Reggie Wu – Sales operation coordinator APAC

Market News: Competitor & Industry Trends

Dairy in 2026: Protecting Margins While Pursuing Growth 

A McKinsey 2026 analysis maps the priorities shaping global dairy this year. Producers are focused on two imperatives: cost discipline and growth through premiumization.

• Supply chain optimization and procurement efficiency are the top tools for protecting margins.
• SKU rationalization is accelerating — brands pruning underperformers to concentrate on higher-margin categories.
• Cheese, yogurt, and functional dairy are the premium growth bets.
• Sustainable packaging is increasingly a purchasing criterion, elevating BW’s relevance as a partner.

Why it matters to BW Packaging: Dairy is one of BW Packaging’s important end markets across multiple product lines. Portfolio rationalization and premium line investment drive new equipment and upgrade opportunities. 

Read more: McKinsey: The dairy industry’s 2026 playbook

Food Manufacturers Rethink Product Assortment

Manufacturing Dive reports that major food companies are cutting 10–20% of SKUs to free capacity and focus investment on core, higher-velocity items.

• Packaging supplier contracts are being renegotiated around flexibility, faster changeovers, and waste reduction.
• Automation is accelerating as companies reduce labor dependency on streamlined product lines.

Why it matters to BW Packaging: SKU rationalization triggers packaging line reconfiguration and new equipment purchases, creating an opportunity for BW Packaging.

Read more: Manufacturing Dive: Food manufacturers rethink product assortment

Recognizing Commercial & Operational Partnership: Delivering for Reynolds

STRONG COMMERCIAL & OPERATIONS PARTNERSHIP

There have been a handful of examples of strong Commercial and Operations partnership. The one we're recognizing today is related to a case packer order for Reynolds.

1. THE PLAN

Going into the holiday break, it appeared that we were on track for a February 19 ship date for the Reynolds Case Packer we had closed in FY25.

The project is a bit complicated as the primary facility is Reedley and there are components coming from Loveland and Romeoville. It was the part of the line coming from Reedley that was causing the delay. 

2. THE CHALLENGE

Coming out of the break, our operations team determined that we were going to be late and notified the customer that there would be a 5-week delay.

After sending the message to Reynolds the week of Jan. 4, we had a call with them later in the week to additional details and discuss potential options. The meeting did not go well due in part to a lack of alignment between our Sales and operation teams. As you can imagine, the Reynolds team was not happy and the delay escalated all the way up to their President.

3. THE TURNAROUND

From that point on we turned it around quickly.

• We began receiving daily updates from the operations team
• Held weekly internal alignment calls
• Scheduled weekly calls with Reynolds

The increased communication enabled us to pull two week out of the schedule. 

4. THE RESULT

We ultimately completed it flawless FAT and shipped the machine in time for Reynolds to meet their timing projections. 

THANK YOU, REEDLEY OPERATIONS TEAM!

Your partnership, expertise, and commitment turned a challenging situation into an outstanding result for our customer.

YOU MAKE THE DIFFERENCE!

Barry-Wehmiller CEO Kyle Chapman Visiting Packaging Sites

Barry-Wehmiller Chief Executive Officer Kyle Chapman has been visiting sites across Packaging to listen to team members, tour facilities, and share about Barry-Wehmiller’s Change the Game Strategic Plan. This plan represents Barry-Wehmiller’s vision to redefine success in business by demonstrating how human and economic vibrancy work in Harmony. A vision that BW Packaging plays a critical role in delivering!

Game Changers Recognized at Loveland 

At the Loveland Town Hall, Kyle personally spotlighted two team members as “Game Changers,” a recognition that reflects the kind of character and contribution that define people who help the organization achieve its Change the Game Plan. Congratulations to Eric Rohlf and Robert Smith! Thank you for everything you do to make Packaging successful!

Kyle Chapman and Eric Rohlf

Kyle Chapman and Robert Smith

Internal Career Opportunities

Are you interested in exploring a new challenge or growth opportunity within BW Packaging? Remember that all internal roles are posted directly in Workday. We encourage team members to check regularly and stay informed about opportunities across our unified organization.

To learn more about any of these roles or to apply, visit Browse Jobs – Workday and reach out to your People Team partner with any questions.

QUESTIONS?

Do you have questions, feedback or ideas you'd like to share? Please send us an email at unleashed.questions@bwpackaging.com