Preview: For Avery Dennison, It’s a Promotional Wrap

Since divesting its office products division four years ago, Avery Dennison Corp. in Glendale has built its business on product labels and industrial materials. But now the packaging supplies giant is moving into a new sector with a $3 million investment in Wrapify Inc., a San Diego startup that compensates drivers for wrapping their cars in a temporary adhesive film printed with advertisements. “Avery Dennison sees the promise in what we’re building,” James Heller, founding chief executive of Wrapify and a member of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list for 2017, said. “We’ve been working with them since the very beginning.” Automotive wraps are used by businesses, individuals and even the military to alter a vehicle’s exterior color without paint. The global market value of these so-called “car wraps” hit roughly $909 million in 2014, according to a report by Grand View Research Inc., an investment research and consulting agency based in San Francisco. That figure will swell to more than $4.2 billion by 2022, the firm predicts. Avery Dennison sees investing in Wrapify as a way to benefit from that trend, said Bill Podojil, senior business director of the graphics solutions arm of Avery Dennison North America. “We’re hoping that the Wrapify investment will bring awareness that this technology even exists,” he said. “We thought (investing) would be a way to leverage technology that we think is quite innovative when we get into the consumer world.” Read the full story in the March 20 issue of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.