In early 2020, John Bruens, owner, founder and CEO of Spartanburg-based Global Transplant Solutions, had a problem on his hands.
“(Global Transplant Solutions) supplies organ-preservation solutions to the organ procurement and transplant marketplace,” he says. “Some organs require cool-temperature shipping, and the standard for accomplishing that was always a Styrofoam-lined box.”
The problem, Bruens says, was twofold: Shipments were arriving with about a 20% breakage rate, and customers on the back end of the logistics chain were having to figure out what to do with all the Styrofoam.
“Imagine a customer that receives 100 or more cases of our product a month — that’s 100 boxes filled with Styrofoam,” Bruens says. “They have to throw it all out, a process that puts pressure on them. It was a real problem.”
Enter Steve Johnson, investment manager with SC Launch, itself a part of the public, nonprofit South Carolina Research Authority that exists to develop and support South Carolina’s innovation economy. GTS is part of the SC Launch/SCRA network.
“I was talking to Steve about how GTS could become more recyclable,” Bruens remembers. “Steve says, ‘That’s funny, I’m talking to this company that has this novel, paper-based insulation.’”
The novel, paper-based insulation is the work of Williamston-based Bubble Paper, a company with not only a strong sense of purpose, but a sense of humor, too (its homepage declares “we give a ship”). And like GTS, Bubble Paper is part of the SC Launch/SCRA network.
Bubble Paper founder and CEO Ben Moore says Johnson arranged an introduction with Bruens and just like that, a partnership was born.
“Steve Johnson did a great intro,” Moore says. “I went to the GTS facility and was able to go through their shipping boxes and come away with an understanding of their needs. They gave us a sample and we took it to our engineering team to build a better-performing and right-sized solution.”
And the solution is working.
“It’s groundbreaking and amazing — Bubble Paper works like a pillow. Not only does it insulate our solution against significant temperature changes, it cushions it,” Bruens says. “Breakage is down to almost zero.”
GTS is shipping about 250 boxes with the bubble paper design per month, he says, and net revenues are shooting skyward.
“It’s the only packaging system we’ll ever use. It not only addresses the critical issue of waste, it serves our customers’ best interests, too,” Bruens says. “All because Steve Johnson said, ‘Wait! I know a guy.’”
It’s what SCRA is all about, Johnson says of the mutually beneficial relationship he helped forge.
“A lot of what SCRA does is make connections,” Johnson says. “I’m working with about 50 companies, and there’s a good chance company A, for example, hasn’t made a connection with company Y. Part of the excitement of my job is to truly see one company meet another company’s need right here in South Carolina. They aren’t always perfect fits, but this one was. When we look back on investments, it’s exciting to see them take off, expand their employee base and product line. It makes what we do worthwhile.”
Bruens says SC Launch/SCRA’s strength is in cultivating a business ecosystem. “Not just money — (but also) promotion and connection.”
