Who We Are: Quality Manager Robby Glass

Robby Glass is a second-generation member of the Fruit Growers family. He joined the Carton Plant staff back in 2001, working under the same roof as his father, former FGS Maintenance Supervisor Rictor Glass, for more than a decade. These days, he’s carrying on the family legacy as Quality Manager, bringing a quarter-century of experience to the role.

This month’s installment of Who We Are offers a closer look at the man whose department produces more than 1 billion square feet of corrugated boxes every year.

When did you begin working for Fruit Growers?

I started in February 2001, so this is my twenty-fifth calendar year. I started out on the floor and worked there until 2017. During that time, I got my bachelor’s degree and my master’s degree, and they promoted me to quality manager in 2017.

What are your responsibilities as quality manager?

I’m responsible for the quality of the 1.4 billion square feet that comes off our corrugator annually. I work with customers, I work with brokers, and I do all the quality testing for the box plant. On top of that, I manage most of the box plant’s safety program, most of the box plant’s environmental program, and most of our certifications. I also do data validation, data analysis, and financial analysis. I’m a man of many hats!

That’s a lot of paper. How many different kinds of packaging do you make?

I would say probably 500 different box types and 3,000 different prints.

Speaking of the environmental program, can you tell me about the Carton Plant’s commitment to sustainability?

All the water we use at the plant is recycled into our starch system. We don’t discharge any wastewater into the city. All our paper scrap is gathered up and sent out to be recycled. All the waste we create is either turned around and reused or recycled. Our products are sustainable, too. Our medium paper is nearly 100% recycled paper. Our liners are a mix of virgin and recycled. Our combined box is 66 post-consumer recycled.

With 25 years of experience in the industry, you could work anywhere. What keeps you at FGS?

I work with really great people. We feel more like family members than co-workers, and that’s important when you spend one-third of your life together. There isn’t one person who does everything; everyone chips in and everyone does a little bit of everything. I like the autonomy that Fruit Growers gives me, too. I’m allowed to come up with projects on my own.

What’s an example of one of those projects?

Last year, we did some analysis on our boxes and wound up taking all the trays that Sunkist runs and putting them into one kind of style so one machine could run all four kinds of boxes. It cut out a lot of paper and saved the packing houses a few million dollars in shipping costs and reduced paper costs.