Unicep Packaging Inc., a Sandpoint-based, U.S. Food & Drug Administration-approved packager of gels, liquids, and creams, says that the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has awarded it a three-year contract to package a line of personal care products.

Unicep announced the contract in early June, but says it began shipping the items to GlaxoSmithKline's distribution center in Memphis, Tenn., in March.

Unicep, founded in 1991 by Sandpoint dentist John Snedden as a contract packager of doses of dental materials, has grown to about 150 employees today from roughly 100 in 2007, says Clint Marshall, vice president of business development. Marshall says he was brought in with company President Marcus Anderson two years ago to grow Unicep.

"We've implemented a number of strategies," including lean manufacturing and a so-called "program-management model," which is "like customer service on steroids," Marshall says.

He says that under the program-management system, Unicep designates one of its staff members to handle service issues for a customer and to be an advocate for that customer at Unicep.

In contract packaging, technical, manufacturing, quality, and logistics issues can arise, and customer service is very important, Marshall says. He says the program-management approach "has worked very well for us."

GlaxoSmithKline plc, which is located in London and has U.S. operations, says it had roughly 7 percent of the global pharmaceutical market as of April 2008 and introduced the world's first time-release medicine in 1952. The company makes both prescription drugs and over-the-counter products.

To package the line of personal care products for GlaxoSmithKline, Marshall says, "We installed some of their equipment in our facility and used it as well as some of our equipment."

After building up its work force over the last two years, Unicep now expects that its revenue will grow by double digits, but it won't add many employees for awhile, Marshall says.

He says that Snedden still owns Unicep.