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Boxes Inc. and Mid America Display BY STEVE YOUNG
COMPANIES: Boxes Inc., Mid America Display ESTABLISHED: 1977, 2005 JOINED AICC: 1977 Photos courtesy of Boxes Inc. and Mid America Display.
PHONE: 314-781-2600, 314-781-7771 WEBSITE: boxesinc.com, midamericadisplay.com LOCATIONS: Bridgeton, Mo., Bentonville, Ark. President and CEO: Michael Patton At an open house in December, Eric Benardin, vice president of operations for Boxes Inc. and Mid America Display, conducts a facility tour.
M
ichael Patton enters the cavernous design and graphic arts studio at Boxes Inc. and Mid America Display and says, “Here is a place where young people want to come to work.” Patton is president and CEO of the companies, both headquartered in the St. Louis, Mo., suburb of Bridgeton, and judging by the number of youthful faces collaborating in the space on customers’ structural and graphic design requirements, he’s clearly right. The company recently moved into a new 530,000-square-foot manufacturing plant and assembly and pack-out facility, where it produces its signature packaging, display, and signage solutions for major brands and retailers across the country.
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BOXSCORE March/April 2020
“We are one of the top independent manufacturing facilities in this country,” Patton says. “We continue to install the latest innovative technologies to boost efficiency and respond to customer requirements regarding innovation, cost, quality, critical delivery dates, and our assistance in maximizing their ROI.” From the Start: Core Principles Boxes Inc. was founded during what many consider the “golden age” of the North American corrugated business, that time in the late 1960s and ’70s when the containerboard mill system was seeing a wave of vertical integration. It was a time that saw the birth of many new independently owned and operated
corrugated sheet plants, as company mergers spun off talented and ambitious entrepreneurial thinkers who said, “I can do this better.” “I was one of the principal founders of Boxes Inc.,” Patton says. “Along with my partners, Lynn Carroll and the late Gene Wicks, we started the company in December of 1977 to continue our business beliefs and approaches serving our customers who required smaller quantities but higher service.” Patton explained that the three partners had been senior managers at another St. Louis-based company that decided to replace the management team. “We were out, and the three of us decided, ‘We can do this better.’”
