Hoboken Entrepreneur Priya Nair Scales Sustainable Packaging Startup Nationwide

Priya Nair's Hoboken-based startup Verdant Pack is expanding its compostable packaging line to national grocery retailers this year, following nearly a decade spent building the business primarily around regional food brands in the New York metro area.

Nair launched Verdant Pack out of a small Hoboken warehouse space after growing frustrated, during an earlier career in food manufacturing, with how much single-use plastic packaging her former employer generated. The company's compostable trays and films are now used by dozens of regional grocery chains and food brands, and Nair says the recent national retail deal represents the company's biggest volume commitment to date.

"We spent years proving the product worked at a regional scale before any national retailer would take the risk," Nair said. "Sustainable packaging sounds great in a pitch meeting, but retailers need to know it survives a real supply chain, real weather, and real shelf life requirements before they'll commit to it at scale."

Verdant Pack has grown to 140 employees and recently opened a second manufacturing facility in Elizabeth to keep pace with rising order volume. Nair says the company deliberately kept both facilities in New Jersey rather than pursuing cheaper manufacturing options out of state, citing the value of keeping production close to the New York metro retailers that remain its largest customer base.

The company's national expansion is expected to roughly double its production volume over the next 18 months, according to figures Nair shared at a recent industry conference.