Meet Stephany

With over 300,000 square feet of floor space and 100 full-time employees, keeping Elopak’s brand new factory in Little Rock, Arkansas fully stocked and running is no mean feat. Fortunately, purchasing specialist Stephany Brooks has over 30 years’ experience of keeping factories like Elopak’s up to speed.    

Originally from Joplin, Missouri, Stephany is proud to be a part of the team at Elopak’s state-of-the-art plant, and likes that all the visitors are impressed with the facility.  

Prior to joining the pack at Little Rock, Stephany worked for Jasper Products, an aseptic beverage manufacturing facility in neighboring Missouri. There she was responsible – among other roles – for purchasing packaging materials. 

When Stephany and her husband finished building a brand-new home just south of Little Rock, she started looking for a role that she could fit into right away and came across Elopak. 

– I’m familiar with carton packaging solutions on the other end, as the filler. I’m familiar with a lot of the same suppliers that we use now here in Little Rock. I already had some relationships established and that’s been helpful. 

Everything from A to Z 

As the purchasing manager, Stephany is responsible for ensuring that the Little Rock plant has everything it needs to keep running smoothly. From pallets to paper towels; boxes to ball-point pens and everything in-between. 

Stocking a new factory is like starting with a blank canvas and Stephany has had to make sure that every inch of that becomes a masterpiece. 

– There’s all these little things that you don’t think about until you don’t have them and you need them. That has been the biggest activity for me: sourcing the uniforms, the vending, the janitorial – those were the very first big projects that I did. And then establishing all of the suppliers that we needed to do business with locally. 

Stephany says the stakes have been particularly high in such a new and state-of-the art factory, allowing her to take on new challenges and learn new skills. Most of all, though, she’s excited for looking forward to when everything feels routine. 

– I am excited for when we get to the normal day to day, when all of our processes have been established, and we all understand them well, and our foundation is good. I’m really looking forward to the folks on the production floor really finding their stride.