Karat Packaging

• Karat Packaging prides itself as a rapidly growing distributor and manufacturer of single-use, environmentally-friendly disposable products used in the foodservice industry. Some of its products include tableware, containers, lids, cups, straws, and cutlery.
• The company's goal is to become a single-source provider of food packaging and disposable needs nationwide by providing high-quality premium products. Karat Packaging has a quality control team that is focused strictly on the product quality and beta testing of products.
• Karat Packaging has established excellent customer service, as customer satisfaction forms a considerable part in the company's success.

Founders

• Karat Packaging Company was founded in 2000 as Lollicup USA Inc and branched to Karat Packaging Inc in 2004.
• The company was founded by Alan Yu, who was also the President/CEO/Co-Founder of Lollicup USA Inc.

Revenue

• Karat Packaging has a total funding amount of $1.9 million.
• As of the financial year 2018, Karat Packaging had revenue of $175.4 million, a 25.3% increase from 2017.
• The revenue for quarter two of 2019 was $60 million, and the net income for the same period was $2.7 million.

Strategies and Success

• As a strategy to market and create awareness of the brand, Karat Packaging engages with the community to promote environmental courses and giving back to the community.
• Karat Packaging conducted a beach clean-up event, where its employees, customers, families, and friends showed up to help prevent ocean pollution by cleaning the Huntington State Beach. According to the marketing director, this move was made to create awareness on the importance of using recyclable and eco-friendly products.
• Karat Packaging Inc also partnered with the Claremont Green crew on March 30 in an event where they planted trees. The company donated some of their products like the Tea Zone tea and the Karat Earth cups, which are compostable. This event was pushed to market the Karat Earth line of eco-friendly products.
• Karat Packaging Inc is focused on the B2B business. It reaches out to companies and helps them to forge strategies for business expansion, growth, and brand recognition besides offering food containers, packages, and printing services.
• Karat Packaging gives assistance to its clients in creating a comprehensive plan to build its businesses. All B2B clients are eligible for this service.
• The company is currently revising its training courses, and all its clients are invited to attend, as Karat Packaging provides high value consulting and grows the brand quality, which makes the company attractive to investors.
• As of Sep 2019, Karat Packaging had 5,000 customers and four distribution centers in the United States.

Research Summary