Pros
In theory, they say they are a $6 billion company which should translate to purchasing. But it doesn't. They have design centers unless you are in the largest market and you cannot get samples made. That's it. They sell to the largest companies in the US but that doesn't translate to local sales when you find large opportunities and they then are paralyzed because they do not give the same resources to local sales.
Cons
The list is long. Sales management is not coming from the packaging industry. Their management came from the print/paper industry. Ask before you take the job the persons experience I n the packaging industry. Reps cannot get samples or design drawings made for you. They tell you to go to local vendors. Which is stupid. Takes away the ability to source. The pricing is awful. A local small distributor of $20 million in sales has the same or better pricing than a $6 billion in sales Veritiv. This is because they hold rebates back and it’s significant. And they have an awful purchasing person who has no relationship with the vendors. Their sourcing is out of Atlanta. So if you are in Southern California and you want something sourced, they will go to the same tired vendors which are not competitive. And are across the country. They have no local sourcing. It’s in Georgia. That’s not smart. I tried sourcing a lot of labels one time and it was too big of an opportunity. And they just gave up on it. Veritiv is cheap. There is no expensing anything. No entertainment. Can’t even buy a customer a sandwich unless you bring your manager. No sports unless it is the top customer. They have no idea on how to let sales reps be sales reps. That takes me to the sales reps they hire. Veritiv doesn’t hire experienced packaging professionals. Very few people have prior packaging experience. The rest come from other industries and their is no training to get the knowledgeable in corrugate. But now I know why they have no experienced packaging reps. Learn their history. They had a very experienced sales team and then they yanked their pay plan. Huge pay cuts. The company is a merger of a paper company and a packaging company. And once the packaging company leadership left, the paper people with no packaging knowledge took over. Their training is a joke. They try. But they spend their whole time talking about knowing your “why”. Like “why did I take this job?” Training was inadequate for learning their systems. This will hold back success. They do not spend more than an hour on corrugate packaging and the training is 3 months long. It is so worthless. Benefits are expensive. Pay. While they give a guarantee for 18 months, you cannot in the packaging industry close enough business in that time so you get a massive pay hit. Which leads to their favoritism of reps. They will give some reps that are brand new ( throughout the US) huge books of business which starts them at a mid 6 figure salary. But then they won’t give another rep anything. No rhyme or reason to how it is done. Also, don’t try to sell outside of your territory. They won’t allow it even if you have a great relationship. No stock boxes. Super expensive stretch film. And they were always out of product that was supposed to be warehoused. By the way, this is my second time writing this because apparently Veritiv complained about my first review. Must be a tactic of their. Get the bad reviews off.
