Thank you for downloading the Bottom Line podcast. This week, Evan and his panel discuss those

tricky business partnerships that many companies rely on. Hello and welcome to the bottom line.

We look into the secrets of a happy marriage today, making relationships work, those key long-term

business relationships that companies have with each other, sometimes cooperating, maybe

sometimes fighting for better or worse, each side needs the other. And also, if you work in a

place where you feel there are too many managers above you, we ask whether flat organisations work

best. But before any of that, let's first meet our guests. And first up is Mike Roney,

whose chief executive of a company called Bunzel. And in some ways, Mike Bunzel is the biggest

company people have never really heard of, making all those products that you don't really

think about, like the cups and the packaging and the paper bags? Well, on the copy of our annual report in 2010, we used to caption everyday essentials everywhere.

I think that really captures the kind of products that we sell.

Bunzel is a global company with more than 5 billion pounds of sales.

And the products that we sell are consumables, goods not for resale.

Two of our primary sectors would be grocery and food service.

And examples of customers in those sectors here in the UK

would be waitros and Costa Coffee.

Right.

So it is literally the cups for Costa Coffee.

Well, for Costa Coffee, it's an excellent customer,

and we would sell more than 400 products to 1,100 stores from 10 different warehouses.

So the little stirers, the little stirers, napkins, cups,

everything in a Costa that's non-food, we would supply.

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