Asinta lets Hartmann break new ground
By harnessing Asinta’s willingness to go the extra mile, and ability to adapt to the unusual, Hartmann was able to secure a necessary grant allowing them to expand into the United States.
Hartmann: Breaking New Ground
There’s a good chance the eggs and fruit in your refrigerator were shipped and stored safely because of Hartmann’s molded fiber packaging and technology. Headquartered in Canada, they are the world’s leader in this category, and in 2013 set plans in motion to expand manufacturing into the United States.
Unexpected barrier to progress
Hartmann bought land in the state of Missouri for the new manufacturing plant, and was ready to take the next step. However, they met a challenge when they learned their expansion grant money from the state of Missouri depended on providing the costs associated with their United States employee benefits plan. Hartmann had no United States employees yet, let alone benefits in place to offer them. How were they supposed to submit a legitimate cost for this?
Knowing the cost was crucial to moving the expansion plan forward, Hartmann approached their Canadian employee benefits consultancy, Cowan, requesting assistance. Because Cowan is an Asinta Partner, Hartmann had immediate access to the minds at exceptional benefits consultancies in the United States, and all over the world should they need it.
Cowan’s Princiapal Consultant, Jacquie Fritsch, reached out to her United States-based Asinta Partner, Sean Leary, who is a Vice President at Alliant Employee Benefits. She introduced Hartmann’s executives to Sean so they could share the importance of obtaining the benefit costs. This also gave Hartmann the opportunity to see that Sean and Alliant mirrored the high level of service Hartmann receives from their own consultancy.
Willing To Work For The Answer
A solid cost estimate was not going to be simple to get. The expectation was that the initial hires would be three high-earning sales executives living in three different regions. However, there were no existing United States employees for the insurers to rate. Additionally, the country’s medical insurance carrier quotes vary by state and insurer. Furthermore, insurers don’t prefer to quote the hypothetical, especially when the group size is so small.
But, Sean took Hartmann’s need seriously and went to work to help them. Using his years of experience, he crafted employee profiles for the various state carriers to review. He used his long-standing relationships with these carriers to encourage them to rate what would initially be a small bit of business.
Expansion Funding Approved
Working through Jacquie at Cowan, Sean was able to get the much-needed benefit costs to Hartmann so their grant money could be approved, and the expansion could move forward. The twist is Sean recommended a benefits plan that would have the first three employees buy their medical plans from the United States individual health insurance marketplace and be reimbursed by Hartmann. This recommendation gave Sean no commission for his work, but he knew it was the right thing to do for the client.
In 2016, Hartmann’s expansion plans are on track. They are on their way to hiring 50 more employees in the United States, with plans to expand to upwards of 120 employees within the next five to seven years.
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Summary:
Hartmann is a Canadian-based packaging manufacturer who wanted to expand operations into the United States, beginning with a few sales executives. However, Hartmann´s unknown United States benefits costs stopped them from receiving a government grant they needed for expansion to move forward.
The company came to their Canadian benefit consultant, The Williamson Group, to learn how to overcome this obstacle. As an Asinta Partner, The Williamson Group quickly contacted the United States Asinta Partner, Alliant Employee Benefits, to get the necessary information.
Despite limited employee data, and small United States group size, both Asinta Partners delivered high service levels to rapidly obtain the required costs, and support Hartmann´s future United States employees.