Client Success
     Hammer Packaging Corp.
     JML Optical Industries, Inc.
     Southco, Inc.

Hammer Packaging Corporation

Hammer Packaging, a Rochester, New York, packaging printer, is the largest maker of cut and stack labels in the United States. Top customers include Nestlé's Poland Spring water, Coca-Cola's Minute Maid juices, PepsiCo's Tropicana, and Cadbury-Schweppes' Snapple and Mott's beverages.

Herman J. Meyering, the great-grandfather of the current President and CEO, Jim Hammer, founded it in 1912 as the Genesee Valley Lithographic Company. Hammer runs a three-shift operation, 6 or 7 days a week. It uses the latest technology, including printing machines costing up to $5 million and maintains an ISO 9001:2001 Registered Quality System. All told, Hammer employs 265 people in the Rochester area, including the 92,000-square-foot facility in Henrietta opened in 1999.

Seven years ago, Hammer hired the Community Nursing Center, predecessor of Health Checkpoint, to conduct on-site nurse wellness counseling. After performing an organizational health assessment, the CNC began spending 15 hours each month at the four Hammer facilities. Nurses typically visit each facility for two to three hours, and the employees sign up for an appointment that might last five minutes or an hour, depending on the situation. They liken their work to providing a personal, caring on-site employee assistance plan, helping with problems that include management of diabetes and weight loss, monitoring blood pressure, and assisting with depression and alcohol problems. They give advice and guidance, point people to health care and community resources, and connect directly with the employees’ physicians and therapists.

Hammer Packaging believes in the work of Health Checkpoint because it sees better health in its employees.

Hammer Packaging recently received the Best Workplace in the Americas 2006 designation for its exemplary human resources practices. The award, presented by the Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) recognizes individuals and companies for outstanding accomplishments in the graphic communications industry. Hammer Packaging has earned the distinction in four of the six years it has existed. A panel of highly respected human resource professionals judge applicants on eight criteria, including Health and Wellness Programs.

JML Optical Industries, Inc.

Joseph M. Lobozzo II founded JML Optical Industries in 1972 to design, manufacture, and distribute precision optical components and systems. It serves domestic and international original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers, in the commercial and government sectors, with high quality optics in prototype to high volume quantities.
The Community Nursing Center, predecessor of Health Checkpoint, piloted a Telehealth Monitoring Kiosk at JML, to monitor the blood pressure and weight of employees remotely. In the four years since, the role of Health Checkpoint has grown to include screening employees with Health Risk Appraisals, and 1-to-1 Nurse Wellness Coaching. About fifty of JML’s 100 employees participate in the company-paid program. Mr. Lobozzo says that he is happy to pay for employees because they are committed to, and serious about, the program.

Southco, Inc.

Founded in 1899 as a specialty pipe manufacturer for the burgeoning Pennsylvania oil industry, Southco, Inc. began manufacturing specialty fastener and latches in 1945. In 1955, it acquired the Lion Fastener Company in Honeoye Falls, New York. Southco’s products include locks, latches, captive fasteners, hinges, and handles, for industries that include marine, automotive, HVAC, medical equipment, network, telecommunications, and computers.

Southco has had the Community Nursing Center give its employees flu immunizations for several years, but this year Health Checkpoint held a Health Fair at the Honeoye Falls plant. Nurses met with 120 employees in a ten-hour day,  screening every employee for blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol, bone density, body mass, and body fat, giving them wellness counseling and health education materials. Nurses presented the company with an aggregate report and recommendations to improve the health of the employees.