Custom case maker Top-Case says the key to satisfying its customers is understanding their needs.

Top-Case Inc., a manufacturer of carrying cases, promises to make its customers look good. Based in Fridley, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis, the seven-person company is a small firm with big capabilities. Establishing relationships continues to play a big part in its success. President Tom Sanders praises its partnerships with its customers and suppliers. “We all work toward the same goal of putting our customers’ products in packaging that fits their particular needs,” he states.

The company provides a variety of packaging that range in price from a few dollars to several hundred dollars. It typically serves customers that use cases for items, such as sales samples, laboratory equipment and medical and technical instruments. In addition, Top-Case serves the engineering and science fields.

“With Top-Case, [our customers] can protect virtually any product – from a static sensitive circuit board to the most delicate instrument – with a first-rate carrying case that is tailored to fit [any product’s] unique shape, size and other characteristics,” the company explains.

Top-Case manufactures cases by first determining what type of care is best to use for its customers’ particular application – vacuum formed, blow molded or injection molded – prior to determining what type of foam will best represent and protect their products.

It’s not just about transporting the products safely, however, Sanders notes. “We not only want to get the products [into their location] in one piece, but we want them to look good,” he states, noting that customer service and quality design are some of the things that set Top-Case apart from its competitors. “When [our customer’s clients] open the case, we want the products to be seen in a professional and attractive manner.”

Making Clients Happy
Sanders says he is proud of the company’s relationship with its customers. For example, Minnesota-based MTS, a manufacturer of equipment for industries that include mechanical testing and simulation, vehicle testing, aerospace and noise and vibration, speaks highly of Top-Case. “We would definitely recommend them as a vendor,” MTS representative Vogel Grote says. “They are very good [to do business with], and we’ve been very happy working with them.”

Top-Case has been working with MTS since 2001.

Sanders adds that Top-Case manufactures custom cases from stock components. “We make products that fit our customer’s needs, rather than taking the product and saying, ‘Here it is – make your product fit.’”

Better Service
Sanders, who has been in the industry since 1979, observes that the market has increasing interest in quick turnarounds. Top-Case has an average turnaround of two to three weeks faster than its competition, he states.

He adds that Top-Case strives to keep its customers’ inventories low, while controlling its own inventories to maintain cost-effectiveness. “Our inventory consists more of materials that can be used for many different applications, rather than fully completed product,” Sanders says. “It allows us to serve customers a lot better and stay lean.”

Top-Case has been implementing lean since its establishment. “We’re a small company, so we have fewer people doing more things,” Sanders notes, “but we’ve always [had] enough staff. We’ve never laid off because of economic changes.”

Continued Growth
Top-Case started as a division of TO Plastics Inc., a manufacturer of custom plastics based in Clearwater, Minn., in 1990.

It spun off as a separate entity three years later, and in January 2002, Sanders became the sole owner of the company. Since then, Top-Case continues to make a name for itself with its superior customer service, Sanders notes.

Although he considers the company to be well established, Sanders believes that there is a lot of room for growth in its current markets.

“Our long-term goal is always about growth,” he states, “but since we’re still a small company, we have to work harder to get our name out.”

He adds that his short-term goal is to better incorporate marketing ideas – starting with the Internet – to make Top-Case more visible. “We want to make a better use of the Internet in getting our name out there,” Sanders says. “That, in turn, will affect our goal of continued growth.”

In the future, he wants to see Top-Case triple its size, and, in five years, “hopefully, we will be a more universally recognized name in our field.”