David Guelzow

David Guelzow started his packaging career on a web offset press in 1988. Nearly four decades later, he still looks at every project the way an operator would. As ILLING’s Director of Decoration Sales, he helps brand owners choose and execute the right way to put their brand on the package, weighing pressure-sensitive labels, shrink sleeves, direct screen printing, and direct digital printing against volumes, SKU count, filling operations, and cost. Many customers arrive with a method already in mind; David tells them honestly when there’s a simpler, smarter way to launch.

That judgment comes from working every side of the business. He learned service at the customer service desk supporting Fortune 100 brands. Since then, he has managed global accounts in medical and pharmaceutical packaging, turned around a contract decorating plant as its General Manager, and led a $250MM regional sales organization. He is a co-inventor on a U.S. patent and holds an MBA from the University of St. Thomas.

For David, service means delivering on what the customer expects and helping them execute their vision at a high level. He lives in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, with Jodi, his wife of 32 years. They have four children and two grandchildren. Away from work, you’ll find him on the golf course, on the water, in the field, or at the rink.

Rebuilding a craft spirits brand’s package, end to end. When a Florida-based craft spirits brand set out to reset its brand, David worked directly with the owner to rebuild the package from the ground up. He sourced the bottles, bar tops, branded labels, tamper bands, and printed shipper cases. ILLING became the brand’s single turnkey packaging resource, delivering every component in full and on time to co-fillers in Texas and Florida to support the relaunch.

Talking a customer out of what they asked for. An e-commerce laundry care brand came to ILLING to take over its shrink sleeve decoration. Its contract filler was struggling with sleeve quality and throughput across two bottle sizes and a growing list of SKUs. After working through their volumes and plans for new variants, David recommended a different path: pressure-sensitive labels, for more production flexibility and lower cost as the brand scales.

Turning around a contract decorating plant from the floor up. As General Manager of Technigraph, a contract decorating facility in Winona, Minnesota, David inherited a business that was losing money and lacked direction after a private-equity acquisition. He started with the customers, resetting relationships and rebuilding service and quality standards around their decoration requirements. On the floor, he retrained operators, set up a dedicated quality team, showed every line employee what scrap was costing the business, and created an annual line-level bonus tied to scrap reduction. Because he had started on a press himself, he earned the operators’ trust quickly. Once they owned their lines, quality followed, and so did the customers: EBITA more than doubled in 18 months.

A brand lives on the shelf and at the front door, and the package is what people actually touch. When ILLING is brought in early, during design and branding direction, it becomes part of the brand’s execution team and the “easy button” for packaging development.

Many brand owners come in with a decoration method already chosen. After looking at their volumes, SKUs, filling line, and cost, David often recommends a different direction, one that is more efficient, less complex, and less expensive.