Athens Entrepreneur Maya Okonjo Scales Sustainable Packaging Startup Nationwide

Maya Okonjo's Athens-based startup, Verdant Pack South, is expanding its compostable packaging line to national grocery retailers this year, following nearly a decade spent building the business primarily around regional food brands across Georgia.

Okonjo launched the company out of a small Athens warehouse space after growing frustrated, during an earlier career in food manufacturing, with how much single-use plastic packaging her former employer generated. The company's compostable trays and films are now used by dozens of regional grocery chains and food brands, and Okonjo says the recent national retail deal represents the company's biggest volume commitment to date.

"We spent years proving the product worked at a regional scale before any national retailer would take the risk," Okonjo said. "Sustainable packaging sounds great in a pitch meeting, but retailers need to know it survives a real supply chain, real weather, and real shelf life requirements before they'll commit to it at scale."

Verdant Pack South has grown to 130 employees and recently opened a second manufacturing facility in Gainesville to keep pace with rising order volume. Okonjo says the company deliberately kept both facilities in Georgia rather than pursuing cheaper manufacturing options out of state, citing the value of keeping production close to its regional retail customer base.

The company's national expansion is expected to roughly double its production volume over the next 18 months, according to figures Okonjo shared at a recent industry conference.