Remember When International Paper Company

In 1941 the International Paper Company opened a factory for their Single Service Division at 1915 Factory Street in Kalamazoo, making wax-coated paperboard milk cartons that were rapidly replacing glass milk bottles. Local elementary school children from this era remember when the small milk bottles were replaced with the ½ pint paper containers and the debate ensued - whether milk tasted better from a glass bottle or paper carton.

The milk containers were made in ½ pint, pint & quart sizes. Packing was one of the selling points used in converting dairies from glass to paper containers - 500 quart paper cartons filled the same space needed to store just 12 glass quart bottles.

The local plant was almost an immediate success, due in part to the United States’ entry into World War II. Service canteens and war plants needed the new easily disposable and unbreakable paper containers for milk. Dairies were kept busy keeping up with demand.

The popularity of paper containers continued postwar and the Single Service plant was enlarged to keep up with the demand. They employed 85 men and women, payroll was $300,000, the plant operated around the clock with three 8-hour shifts - they processed 900 tons of paper monthly.

The containers were shipped all over the U.S. bearing the names of a variety of dairies from cities throughout the nation. A different design, color and advertising copy was found on the containers for each customer. In addition, each customer ordered for many different types of prod- ucts – homogenized milk, enriched milk of various varieties, buttermilk, whipping cream, and more. The Kalamazoo plant printed more than 1900 different printed items on its containers, turning out approximately 24,000,000 milk containers a month in its heyday.

In 1961, plastic coated paper milk cartons began replacing wax-coated cartons. Kalamazoo was only the second metropolitan area in the nation to switch over to the new process (Detroit was the first). Local dairies, including: Lockshore Farm, Kalamazoo Creamery and Cool Farm Diary converted to the new process.

Plastic was a major improvement because there was no wax to chip or peel off, which eliminated the wax brushing off the bottom of containers onto the refrigerator shelves, countertops and tables and wax flaking off into the milk when it’s poured. Plastic also had less leakage and provided a longer shelf life.

In addition, The International Paper Company Single Service Division formerly received the raw paper stock from its mills and the waxing was done at the dairies. With the new process, the paper stock was already coated before arriving at the dairies.

The Single Serve Division in the early 1960’s employed 100 people at the plant here, which was increasing as other areas in Michigan and Indiana converted to the new process.

1n 1963 a $400,000 expansion was announced to expand the Miller Rd. plant by 58,000 sq. ft. (50,000 sq. ft. added to the warehouse & shipping facilities and 3,000 sq. ft. used to enlarge the plant office and art department – adding 2-3 new artists that serve the Single Serve Division. This expansion was officially recognized by Governor Romney as an important part of the industrial expansion in the state of Michigan. IPC Employed 185 workers at the time the expansion was announced, which wouldn’t necessarily require new workers in the manufacturing operation.

Although I have focused on the Single Service Division of International Paper Company in Kalamazoo, they also produced corrugated packaging and had a total of 3 plants in the area, the aforementioned plant on Factory Street and others located at 4015 Emerald Drive and 2315 Miller Road.

International Paper Company, headquartered in Chelsea, Massachu- setts, merged with Temple-Inland and moved operations out of Kalamazoo in 2012. Reasons stated by Scott Dillon, complex general manager, in a July 20, 2012 article in the Kalamazoo Gazette, stated that they had more capacity than their customers need in this area and that their other facilities were better positioned to handle the production requirements necessary for the consolidation of their operations. Sadly, the Kalamazoo plants closed in September of 2012 and 77 jobs were lost.

Sources: Kalamazoo Gazette (KG) 11/28/48, KG 8/21/61, KG 7/30/63, KG 9/13/63, KG 7/20/12, Wikipedia.org