Karl Hoelper Verified listing

Karl Hoelper is Director of Sales and Marketing for RFID Solutions at Checkpoint Systems, working with brands and manufacturers across the categories Walmart is pulling into its RFID mandate most aggressively: general merchandise, automotive, RV and outdoor, cosmetics and beauty, OTC pharmaceuticals, household chemicals, soaps and personal care, and health and beauty. Most of that list maps directly to the categories Walmart added in 2024 and the hard-to-tag categories the mandate is moving toward next. Karl's job is to help suppliers in those categories deploy RFID correctly, so it performs reliably from packaging line to distribution center to retail shelf.

He brings nearly a decade of label and packaging fluency to that work. Karl spent ten years at CCL Label, the world's largest label and packaging manufacturer and the parent company that acquired Checkpoint Systems in 2016. Most of that tenure was as Director of Product Innovation, putting him inside the building while Checkpoint went from being a Walmart RFID partner to being the RFID arm of the company that already prints packaging for most of the CPG brands sitting in front of the Walmart mandate. In January 2025 he moved into a dedicated RFID labels role within CCL, and in December 2025 he stepped into his current role at Checkpoint.

What that combination produces for a Walmart supplier is a partner who understands both sides of the package. Karl works with supplier teams on selecting the right RFID inlay and label construction, integrating RFID into existing packaging and manufacturing processes without disrupting them, protecting brand packaging design while adding RFID functionality, and ensuring consistent read performance once the product is in retail environments. He also runs the education work that makes any of that possible: GS1 EPC encoding standards, retail compliance requirements, placement and packaging design best practices, and supplier onboarding for Walmart and other retailers.

For a Walmart supplier preparing for a category mandate, mid-migration to the 2025 spec updates, or trying to figure out how to put RFID on a curved bottle, a foil seal, or a small cosmetic package without compromising the shelf identity the brand team built, Karl is the right person to call. He brings the CCL packaging fluency, the Checkpoint inlay portfolio, and the implementation discipline to turn an RFID requirement into a clean operational integration.