CMTP Managing Director Chris Meade left school just shy of his 15th birthday when lack of funds in the family prevented the necessary education for him to fulfil dreams of becoming a veterinary surgeon.
After a few years of dairy farming, Meade skilled himself in four building trades before starting his own company. This soon opened an opportunity to start the business that would become CMTP.
“The company my wife and I began in 1976 originally traded under the name Colac Pallet Co,” Meade recalls. “It now stands for Chris and Marilyn’s Timber and Packaging.”
Meade says a well placed comment from a supplier delivering bricks on pallets to his building site sparked his interest in packaging.
“The supplier asked to have the pallets returned quickly as they were too expensive to be left lying around,” Meade laughs.
“Taking this prompt I made some further enquiries and was advised that there was a need for potato and onion bins in our area. After a few telephone calls I had an order and made the first bins in the backyard of the house we were renting.
"From this start it has been a steady progression into various forms of packaging.”
While his journey into packaging was almost accidental, once Chris Meade became involved he set some targets for himself.
“One of these was to take over the packaging leader, Aspect Packaging, which is now being realised,” he says.
“Combining the two businesses will provide a great platform for CMTP to service its client base far better than what was ever previously possible.
"It should also transfer into improved benefits for our combined customer base and for any new customers. I expect the experience, knowledge and capabilities of the total organisation to deliver and exceed our customer’s expectations.”
“Having left school with a limited education I have taken on many courses to compensate,” he adds.
“Some of the courses have included building industry training, employee psychology management, delivered by Chandler and McLeod, and a very significant course was Executive FastTrac, delivered by Acumen and FastTrac Australia.
"Further to this I spent ten days in the USA developing my leadership skills and continue to take on various forms of training to improve my skills and capabilities.”
Meade sees his current role in four parts. “Firstly, I lead the strategic direction for each section of the business,” he explains.
“This typically involves analysing the strengths of each site and the market the site serves in terms of capabilities, infrastructure, technology and opportunities. I also review the personnel strengths or gaps and the systems that support each site.
"From this, and with the involvement of personnel from within each site, we develop our strategic plans.”
“Secondly, I mentor the leaders of each site to enable them to achieve the results we expect. This mentoring covers the HR responsibilities, planning and executing the expected outcomes and managing the financial responsibilities of their operation.
"I find that on many occasions managers have been promoted within an organisation because of their attitude, enthusiasm or skills, but there has been no training in preparing them for their responsibilities as a manager.
“Thirdly, my work involves the development of templates for easy and accurate measurement of the performance of each section of the business,” Meade says.
“These templates become the most important tool for each manager as they provide them with timely and understandable information.”
“Finally, the other key responsibility is corporate compliance, which is covered through a Boardroom process and in my mentoring and management training role.”
Chris Meade believes reliability of product and service, with the minimum amount of interference to a customer’s operations is the key to remaining competitive.
“Innovation is absolutely critical for developing systems that minimise the effort required by our customers to package their goods or products, while maintaining the presentation and security of their product,” he says.
“Innovation needs to cover all parts of the process from design to supply, filling, storage, shipping, warehousing, presentation, security, tracking, documentation, inventory control, recycling and payment.”
“During the life of CMTP we’ve developed relationships with and have been suppliers to many of the large national and international companies in Australia,” Meade says.
“My vision is to be able to support their total packaging needs throughout Australia. There are also opportunities to support these companies and others internationally.
"Maybe this is where our next growth opportunities will come from.”
“Along with my family, I have many employees that rely on this business being sustainable for their personal security, so my work and vision involves ensuring that this business endures well beyond my lifetime,” he adds.
“Currently I have two sons who are taking on major roles within the business and I am ensuring that they and many other people within the business have the skills to succeed.”
According to Meade CMTP’s strategic opportunity for the future is to develop closed loop systems whereby packaging components are reused or almost fully recycled.
“This will be in keeping with the changing philosophy emerging on a global basis now, which I believe will change the packaging industry worldwide,” he says.
“The response to carbon emissions will lead to business being far more responsible with packaging systems and having less of an impact on the environment.
“Our business is currently putting a lot of thought and process into developing these systems for our customers.
"CMTP has developed processes over the last five years that have already gone a long way to providing solutions for the prevention of timber packaging components going to land fill. We are now advancing processes for plastic, cardboard and steel packaging waste to be fully recycled as well.”
“CMTP will soon be able to offer its customers an online pallet design system,” Meade says of current initiatives.
“Also there will soon be a fully developed online sundries and packaging shop that will enable customers to order direct and have their order delivered to any destination across Australia.
“CMTP’s product and service to the fruit and vegetable industry will be available from all of our sites this year thereby reducing freight costs for many of our customers.
"The reverse of this will also benefit our customers as CMTP will be able to offer the products and services that Aspect Packaging have been renowned for at all of the locations.”
Meade argues that Australian brand owners will need to review the sources and the destinations of their packaging materials and change the type and volumes of the materials they use if they are to comply with environmental guidelines.
“I believe that Australian companies are very responsible and very innovative when a challenge is presented to them,” he says.
“With the easing of the current recessionary effects, there will be a shift in focus to corporate environmental responsibilities.
"Packaging in the food and pharmaceutical industries will be the most difficult to deal with as consumers are continually driving for security, quality and reliability of product.”
“As mentioned earlier I see the key strategic opportunities for CMTP being the development of closed loop systems and returnable or recyclable packaging systems,” Meade says.
“Also RFID enabled tracking systems being implemented into particular product lines. On a national basis the ability of CMTP to service customers at all of their sites is now a reality.”
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