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Cascades Debuts Fresh GUARD EnVision™ for Complete Egg Packaging Solution

Both attractive and sturdy, this eco-designed packaging offers robust protection while opening impactful visual possibilities. Its sleeve openings and high-quality printing area break the mold of the traditional format.




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Morrisons Best Bacon Increases Shelf Appeal with Help of New Packaging

Morrisons wanted to reduce supply chain and material costs and to improve the customer experience, aiding navigation for shoppers in-store and improving on-shelf availability in order to increase sales. 




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Express Boxes Unveils Innovative "Build Your Own Box" Tool

The Build Your Own Box tool offers an unprecedented level of customization, ensuring that businesses can create packaging that perfectly aligns with their product dimensions and brand aesthetics.




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Mondi Secures €95 Million Investment for Świecie Containerboard Mill

The upgrade comprises an extensive rebuild of paper machines PM2 and PM5, a new anaerobic treatment plant including an integrated cooling system, and upgrades to the pulp mill, the recycled fiber line and the energy recovery system.




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Al Levi: Busting the multitasking myth

It’s déjà vu all over again” is a famous quote by the late, great Yogi Berra. I’ve lived this scenario, and I’m betting you have, too. I’m talking about callbacks — the woe of the contracting industry.




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Al Levi: Self-study, group study, or personal coach?

Once you know your learning style, you can start to create real change within your company.




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Al Levi: 5 ways to get the most out of trade shows

Planning ahead helps ensure you get the most out of the events you attend.




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Al Levi: Nepotism: Keeping it all in the family

When I was the last of the three brothers to enter the family business, my dad said to me, “I owe you an opportunity, not a guarantee.”




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Al Levi: Practice what I preach

For more than 17 years, I’ve been helping contractors learn and practice good habits. It has improved their lives, their employees’ lives and even the lives of the customers they serve.




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Al Levi: Getting employees to ‘released’

What does getting employees to “released” mean?




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Al Levi: Doing good, ending badly

I’m lucky enough to work with a lot of good-hearted contractors. What I know is contractors in general, despite the skewed view of the media to the contrary, want to do the right thing for their customers and their community.




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Al Levi: Delivering poop sandwiches

I got an email from a client the other day that instantly reminded me of how I once delivered “poop sandwiches” to my own employees.




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Al Levi: No such thing as accidental company culture

I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with some great contractors over the years. I shared what I had learned along the way at my own company, and I brought those insights and systems to their companies to help them grow and succeed.




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Al Levi: Sharpening the axe before you need it company culture

It was still hot and sweaty in the midday sun just a couple of days after Labor Day in New York, and at first glance, you’d think we were out in the yard in the dead of winter.




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Al Levi: Behavior in the new social media world company culture

The old adage goes, “Do something good for someone and they’ll tell 10 people. Do something bad to someone and they’ll tell 100 people.”




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Al Levi: Money from the scrap heap

A client called me awhile back because he wanted to know what my family did with the scrap metal from jobsites, and he wanted to know what the other companies I work with do on this matter too.




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Al Levi: It’s a drug and we’re hooked: social media world company culture

"It’s a drug and we’re hooked!” is what I said to my brother, Richie, about the fix I felt we got from doing the really big monster commercial and residential jobs for what we felt were lots of dollars.




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Al Levi: 10 things to think about company culture

One of the nice things about my job is I’m usually busy. I like when I look up at the end of the day and see that the day has flown by. 




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Al Levi: Loaves of bread, not slices

I’ll admit it. I’m not a giant fan of reading financials and management reporting.




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Al Levi: Mastering the master project list

Why is it that your staff isn’t quite as excited as you are when you discuss a new project, a new process, new policy or a habit you want to change?




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Al Levi: The secret bonus of documenting how you do business

There are only two types of companies I’ve ever worked with in my 18 years of being a consultant to the contracting industry.




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Al Levi: It was working when I left!

It was working when I left!” 




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Al Levi: Urgent versus important

Everything in business is important! Not everything in business is urgent — thank heavens!




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Al Levi: Hire willing people, provide skills or pay the price

“Hire willing people and provide them the skills — as opposed to hiring spoiled, experienced people with skills and behavior problems.” 




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AL Levi: Fix things at your company

What is finally going to fix things at your company? 




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AL Levi: What if I train them and they leave?

One of the most common things I see when I begin my work with a new contracting client is the resistance to train employees. 




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Al Levi: Attitude versus behavior: What’s the difference?

Bad attitudes are everywhere, or so it would appear. In most cases, it is based on nothing other than your opinion. 




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Al Levi: How are you judging your staff’s performance?

With every new consulting client, I begin our work by asking the following: “How are you judging your staff’s performance?”




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Al Levi: Do what’s in the book

The conversation typically goes like this: The owner tells me, “Al, I don’t know if I can get buy-in here for the operating manuals.”




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Al Levi: Distance learning works

I’ll admit it. I was skeptical that distance learning could be a worthwhile experience for service contractors. 




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Al Levi: The goal writing is on the wall

By the time you read this, most people’s New Year’s resolutions or goals will be a distant memory, and they’ll be back to doing the same things they said they weren’t going to do. 




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Al Levi: Fleet management done right

You may think you are too small to have a fleet manager, or so big you need a full-time fleet manager, and neither of those things is necessarily true.




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Al Levi: Marketing needs great testimonials

When we see a testimonial, we know someone else has already tested the waters for us. Especially in today’s crowded marketplace, you need something that sets your contracting company apart.




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Al Levi: New practices for COVID-19

There’s an ancient proverb that says, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.




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Bradford White to purchase Keltech line of tankless electric water heaters

The Keltech acquisition will also begin a new partnership between Bradford White and Bradley.




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PHVAC experts look ahead in 2021

The dawning of a new year has PHVAC industry experts cautiously optimistic about new opportunities that lie ahead in 2021. 




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How specialty contractors can drive collaboration and project quality

No matter who you are, project management can be a challenge. 




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Uponor wins Minnesota Manufacturing Sustainability Award

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal recently announced Uponor North America is the 2020 Manufacturing Sustainability Award honoree recognizing the commitment to conserving water, reducing waste, improving energy efficiency and empowering labor.




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Bridging the gap with virtual training

Located in Louisville, Kentucky, Zoeller’s state-of-the-art training facility, the Center for Excellence, has been drawing contractors, engineers and distributors in for product training over the past five years. 




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Canadian farmer finds nest egg with fire tube boilers

When HVAC work needs to be completed for agriculture applications in Ontario, Canada, Gleeson Plumbing & Heating has a reputation of delivering impressive results time and time again. 




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PEX pipe and tubing freeze-break resistance and benefits addressed in new technical report

The Plastics Pipe Institute (PPI) published a new technical report related to the break resistance of PEX pipe and tubing when fluid inside becomes frozen.




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Tips on maintaining high-efficiency boilers

Popular high-efficiency boilers tend to be more expensive at installation, but lower utility bills pay customers back over time. 




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PM Profile: Uponor's Aaron Stotko, Andrew Koppi and Stephanie Radel

Uponor North America launched its new Complete Polymer Solution for commercial-piping applications in the U.S. 




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Grundfos endorses use of high efficiency IE5 motors and pump solutions globally

E-motors are the ideal solution for better efficiency and reducing energy consumption.




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Is boiler turndown really that important?

It’s without question that technology has improved the mechanical world around us. From my smartphone, I can instantly see the health of hundreds of our boiler plants across the country. 




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Water safety in DHW recirculation

Domestic hot water recirculation system design is a hot topic in our industry, for good reason. 




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Meet commercial water heating needs with efficient, reliable propane systems

The demand for energy-efficient commercial appliances continues to grow — especially as government initiatives continue to promote the use of energy-efficient solutions.




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Higher turndown ratios, parallel cascading are keys to efficiency

The major trend in the commercial boiler market, which will continue in 2021 and beyond, is the predominance of packaged boilers installed in multiple boiler cascade systems. 




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Feature-packed digital mixing valves

There is a revolution happening in today’s plumbing marketplace, specifically when it involves domestic hot water system designs.




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New age net-zero emerges from sustainable lifestyle

For decades, Janet Armstrong and Lloyd Davies have lived and breathed the sustainable lifestyle. Their way of life has ties to the example set by Janet’s father, who built the first solar house in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, way back in 1978.