Amcor Mundelein vs. New Albany: Which Facility Fits Your Packaging Needs?

Procurement coordinator here, managing flexible packaging orders for about 6 years now. I've personally made (and documented) 12 significant routing mistakes between Amcor facilities, totaling roughly $14,000 in expedited shipping fees and production delays. Now I maintain our team's facility selection checklist to prevent others from repeating my errors.

The question I get most from newer buyers: "Does it matter which Amcor facility I work with?" Short answer: yes, more than you'd think. I didn't fully understand the operational differences until a $3,200 healthcare packaging order got routed to the wrong location in September 2022 and missed our FDA submission deadline by 11 days.

The Comparison Framework

I'm comparing Amcor Mundelein (Illinois) and Amcor New Albany (Ohio) across four dimensions that actually affect your day-to-day experience:

• Core capabilities and specializations
• Realistic turnaround times (not the quoted ones)
• Minimum order flexibility
• Communication and problem resolution

Quick disclosure: I've routed approximately 340 orders between these two facilities since 2019. My experience skews toward flexible packaging for food and pharmaceutical applications—your mileage may vary for rigid plastics or industrial films.

Capability Comparison: What Each Facility Actually Does Best

Mundelein's Sweet Spot

Mundelein has historically handled our high-barrier flexible packaging—think multilayer films for moisture-sensitive products. If I remember correctly, they expanded their pharmaceutical packaging capabilities around 2021, though I might be misremembering the exact timeline.

What they're genuinely strong at:

• Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) applications
• Smaller-format pouches with complex barrier requirements
• Healthcare compliance documentation (they've never missed a cert for us)

The Mundelein team treats small orders seriously. When I was starting out with $400 test runs, they gave the same attention they give our $15,000 production orders now. Small doesn't mean unimportant to them—it means potential.

New Albany's Strengths

New Albany runs bigger. Their sweet spot seems to be high-volume flexible packaging for CPG brands—large format, faster throughput, but less flexibility on customization mid-run.

Where they excel:

• Standard food packaging at volume (think 50,000+ units)
• Established SKU reorders with minimal spec changes
• Regional distribution efficiency for Midwest customers

I have mixed feelings about New Albany for smaller accounts. On one hand, their capacity means they can absorb rush orders when Mundelein is maxed out. On the other, I've definitely felt the "small fish" treatment on orders under $2,000.

Turnaround Time: The Numbers vs. Reality

This is where I've documented the most surprises. (Should mention: these timelines are based on our 2023-2024 order history, not official Amcor quotes.)

Mundelein Turnaround

Quoted lead time: typically 3-4 weeks for standard flexible packaging.
Our actual average: 3.5 weeks (based on 47 orders tracked in our system).

The variance is what matters. Mundelein's standard deviation on our orders was about 4 days—predictable enough for planning. The one time they missed badly was during a material shortage in Q1 2024, and they proactively called us 8 days before the original deadline to flag the delay.

New Albany Turnaround

Quoted lead time: typically 2-3 weeks for high-volume runs.
Our actual average: 2.8 weeks (based on 31 orders).

Here's the catch—New Albany's variance was higher. Standard deviation of about 7 days. When they're on schedule, they're fast. When they're not, it can stretch significantly. I knew I should get written confirmation on the deadline for our Q3 2023 order, but thought "we've worked together for years." That was the one time the verbal agreement got forgotten—added 12 days and nearly killed a product launch.

The Verdict on Speed

If you need predictability: Mundelein.
If you need raw speed on large volumes and can absorb some variance: New Albany.

Minimum Order Flexibility

The vendors who treated my $200 orders seriously when I was starting out are the ones I still use for $20,000 orders. That's not hypothetical—it's exactly what happened with Mundelein.

Mundelein's MOQ Approach

They've accepted orders as low as 5,000 units for us on standard materials (based on our 2024 orders; verify current minimums directly). For custom barrier specifications, minimums jump to around 15,000-25,000 units, which honestly makes sense given the material changeover costs.

What surprised me: they'll often suggest alternative materials that hit a lower MOQ threshold without sacrificing performance. That kind of problem-solving is why we route trial orders to Mundelein first.

New Albany's MOQ Approach

Higher minimums across the board—typically 25,000+ units in our experience. Their equipment is optimized for throughput, not flexibility.

Part of me understands why. Another part knows that our "test run" of 8,000 units in 2020 turned into annual orders of 200,000+ units by 2023. New Albany passed on that initial order; Mundelein didn't.

Communication and Problem Resolution

This dimension surprised me the most.

When Things Go Wrong at Mundelein

In March 2024, we received a shipment with incorrect barrier layer thickness—caught it in our incoming QC. Contacted our Mundelein rep at 2pm, had a root cause explanation by 6pm, replacement shipment authorized by next morning. Total resolution time: 3 business days including the reshipping.

Their documentation game is strong. Every deviation gets a formal incident report, which matters enormously for our pharmaceutical clients' audit trails.

When Things Go Wrong at New Albany

I still kick myself for not escalating faster on a 2022 issue. Print registration was off on 40,000 pouches—noticeable but arguably within spec. Getting a clear answer took 9 days and three different contacts. If I'd pushed harder initially, we'd have resolved it in half the time.

To be fair (thankfully), the actual replacement process once approved was fast. They overnighted corrected product at their cost. The bottleneck was decision-making, not execution.

The Selection Matrix

After 340 orders and too many documented mistakes, here's how I route decisions now:

Choose Mundelein when:

• Order volume is under 25,000 units
• You need healthcare/pharmaceutical compliance documentation
• Timeline predictability matters more than raw speed
• It's a new SKU or trial run
• You're a smaller account and want actual attention

Choose New Albany when:

• Volume exceeds 50,000 units of established SKUs
• You're reordering something they've run before
• Distribution is concentrated in the Midwest/East
• You can build in timeline buffer for variance

Consider both (get parallel quotes) when:

• Order falls in the 25,000-50,000 unit range
• You're capacity-constrained and need backup options
• Major product launch where redundancy justifies extra coordination

What About the Berry Acquisition?

I should add that Amcor's acquisition of Berry Global (announced in late 2024, per Amcor investor relations filings) will likely change this comparison significantly. As of January 2025, the facilities still operate under their existing structures, but integration could shift capabilities, MOQs, and regional routing over the next 12-18 months.

My recommendation: build relationships at both facilities now, before the organizational changes potentially shuffle your contacts. The goodwill I'm working with now took three years to develop—I'd hate to restart that clock.

Final Thought

The vendor failure in March 2023 changed how I think about facility selection. One critical deadline missed, and suddenly redundancy didn't seem like overkill. Having working relationships at multiple Amcor locations isn't just about optimization—it's about resilience.

Get samples from both. Test their responsiveness with real questions before committing production volume. The 2-3 weeks you spend validating will save you from the $14,000 in mistakes I've already made for you.

Pricing and lead times referenced are based on our 2023-2024 order history and may not reflect current rates. Contact Amcor directly for current quotes and capabilities.