Malnove Packaging Solutions president takes reins amid shift in consumer habits (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — It’s tough striking up a conversation about empty boxes, but for Eric Malnove, manufacturing and selling foldable carton packaging for everything from toothpaste to fruit snacks is a sophisticated trade.
Malnove transitioned from vice president to president of Malnove Packaging Solutions at the start of 2026, a move unveiled by the company Thursday. He replaces Dale Houck, who is retiring at the end of this year.
Carrying the namesake of the company, Malnove is taking the reins of an institution founded by his father. Although it started Omaha, Nebraska, in 1948, the company has sustained itself in Jacksonville for decades.
In an interview with the Business Journal, Malnove said he’s taking the reins of the company as it adjusts to shifting industry trends and expands its Jacksonville footprint.
From finance to boxes
Malnove wasn’t always wrapped up in the packaging industry. He had a career in finance, working in Charlotte for several years.
When the banking crash and recession of 2008 happened, Malnove decided to move back home and be closer to family.
His father had expanded to Jacksonville in the 1980s, and Malnove was born and raised here.
The elder Malnove pitched his son on learning the business.
“So I started here on the plant floor, went through every department, spent a couple years just working on the equipment, learning every step of the process and slowly moving into different roles,” Malnove said. “… it was actually a huge step backwards from where I was in finance. But I thought it was a great opportunity to learn the business, so it was like a management training program.”
Eight years ago, Malnove said his dad was ready to hand over the reins. Alongside Houck, Malnove was vice president as the company navigated through a pandemic and inflation.
As consumer habits have changed significantly within the past six years, Malnove said the company is in good shape, recently completing a project earlier this year to have on-site warehousing.
“We’ve seen tremendous growth over the last eight years, enough to obviously reinvest,” Malnove said.
But in an ever-changing market for consumer-packaged goods, Malnove is diversifying the company’s portfolio.
Growing beyond food
Producing packaging from paper-based materials, Malnove stands in a crucial, yet often overlooked part of the supply chain.
With additional operations in Utah and Nebraska, Malnove mass produces the foldable cartons and ships them off to a variety of companies that use them as packaging to box their products as they appear on grocery store shelves.
Malnove has a reach to the Ohio Valley and Texas from its Jacksonville facility, Malnove said, and reaches other parts of the country from its two locations.
“We ship all over the United States for some of the largest brands in the world,” Malnove said.
The company is on a trajectory to grow beyond the boxes of snacks and meals for the American consumer, Malnove said.
For decades, food packaging was Malnove’s primary market, and during the pandemic, it was a boom as everyone had to eat at home, the company president said.
“(Store) shelves were emptied, and so it was a good year. But then following that, we were working off the inventory, everyone started eating out a lot, so it slowed down significantly, the whole market,” Malnove said. “So it’s a tough place right now, with the GLP (drugs), really changing consumer habits, so we’re trying to diversify more.”
That means expanding the company’s packaging portfolio to household goods, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals, Malnove said. It means eyeing increased demand for pet food after scores of people adopted animals during the pandemic.
“Pet food is booming right now, ever since Covid, now everybody has a pet, particularly cats for some reason,” Malnove said.
Sustaining growth
Malnove said growth for the company has required strategic precision.
The warehousing expansion recently completed this year was done to adjust to a more inflated leasing market. Ten years ago, building the company’s own warehousing made no sense, Malnove said, now it’s the best option in order to control inventory, eliminate running trailer trucks back and forth and dodging a costly leasing market.
“I wish I could say it was a great investment relative to growing the business, but it was almost more of a cost avoidance,” Malnove said. “So industrial, commercial rental space, which we had several warehouses in the park here, rates (are) just going up in Jacksonville significantly.”
City records show the project at Malnove’s Northside facility cost $12.19 million, adding 171,925 square feet of warehousing.
Malnove said to sustain the company’s growth, he has focused on re-shaping the service side paired with the carton manufacturing.
“You’re only going to look at a total market growth of 1-2% a year overall. So how do you outpace that and grow more?” Malnove said.
For the new president, it’s focusing on offering a full suite of services around carton production growing companies, from service functions, supply chain, mechanical, packaging and design.
Offering the full suite for companies making strides in growth but have not reached household name status has become Malnove’s method of boosting growth.
“So we can say, ‘Hey, let us help you with managing your supply chain. Let us help you with artwork. Let us help you with managing your inventories or distribution or whatever it is,” Malnove said.
The extensive suite of services is also how Malnove aims to adapt to new consumer habits, positioning the company to support their customers in changing branding and packaging to emphasize nutritional information in high demand from consumers.
“It’s following those trends and making sure that you’re keeping your customers abreast, because while their eating habits are changing, it’s like proteins right now, because of those eating habits, everything has protein in it,” Malnove said. “So it’s making sure your customers stay out on top of those trends, or they’re not going to do well.”
Photo courtesy of Malnove Packaging Solutions