Associated Packaging Inc. was just looking for more space when they found a building that not only offered a lot of room, but a little piece of

Greer history. Known to locals as the old Homelite and later the John Deere plant, 306 South Buncombe Road became local manufacturer API’s new home in October 2006. During the five months of extensive renovations prior to moving day, many former Homelite and John Deere employees stopped by to reminisce. When it came time for the grand opening, API invited not only their own staff, but everyone with a connection to the building’s past. “More than 100 people showed up,” API President Bill Dorris says with amazement. “It was like an old high school reunion. Everyone had such great stories to tell about their lives in this building.”

Built in 1959 and expanded in 1979, the 230,000-square-foot building sat unoccupied for more than three years before its current rebirth as a corrugated sheet plant. With the help of David Swenson, formerly of the Greer Development Corporation, API swapped their old plant on Pennsylvania Avenue for the South Buncombe Road building. “There are not many people looking for that kind of space in Greenville County,” Bill explains. “We looked at the cost of adding on to our old build-ing but it was more cost effective to renovate the new location. Plus, we got to save a wonderful building with a great past.”

The old metal fabrication plant, though, would prove to be a challenge for API. “There were no plans showing where the electrical, plumbing, and heating and air com-ponents were located,” Bill says. “We spent a lot of time tracing wires, pipes, and ducts that led nowhere. We still get a few surprises here and there, but we’ve gone from killing anacondas to garden snakes,” he laughs.

API was started in 1974 by Bill Neely, D.D. Williams, and Bud Alley. Originally based in Taylors, the busi-ness moved with remaining owner Neely in 1984 to 446 Pennsylvania Avenue in Greer. In 1991, Bill and Carolyn Dorris purchased Associated Packaging and brought sons Scott, Vice President of Operations, and Brad, Vice Presi-dent of Sales, into the business a few years later. “We’re not only a family-run business,” Bill admits, “we’re a family-oriented business. We treat our people like they’re family. We’re really blessed to have good long-term employees because they’re the ones that make it happen every day.” To show appreciation of their dedicated staff of 65, API included a comfortable break room, a fully-equipped exercise room, and a cafeteria in the design of their new plant.

Under the direction of Plant Manager Brad Dennis, API not only produces the brown boxes from corrugated sheets that they are known for, but point-of-purchase displays and specialty shipping containers. “The basic ma-chine process to make a box has not changed over the last

APIBeyondthe Box

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w ritten by SHERIL BE NNET T TURNER

photographed by KRIS DECKER

Associated Packaging had its own “Extreme Makeover” last year, and is now home to some 65 employees.

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30 years,” Bill explains, “but with advances in technology, the speed of the machines has increased. We automate everything that we possibly can as far as material flow. We bring it in one end and ship it out the other. At API, we’re all about fingerprints — the less we have to touch a product, the less it costs to make, and the less expensive it is for our customers to buy.” API also provides contract packaging, or fulfillment, as well as a full-range of pack-aging supplies.

Another area in which API is quickly expanding is the graphics market. Graphics, as it pertains to their business, is multi-color printing on corrugated boxes. “Graphics is our ability to print as opposed to our ability to just make a brown box,” Bill explains. “Right now there are a lot of companies that print graphics on boxes, but not a lot that do it well.” With specialty equipment, API’s design team has the ability to print high-quality images, turning a plain brown box into a showpiece.

Using their own trucks and drivers, API currently ships five days a week to customers within a 130-mile ra-dius, which includes the Asheville, Charlotte, and North Atlanta markets. Shipping Manager Doug Golden is in charge of getting the product delivered in a timely man-

ner. “Our on-time delivery is 98 percent,” Bill says. “We work really hard at taking care of our customers by get-ting them their order when they need it.” API’s customers are varied and include a wide range of businesses from the automotive, electronic, food, pharmaceutical, and even the music industry. “We cater to everyone from the mom-and-pop operation that buys packaging twice a year to the multi-million-dollar company that buy boxes two and three times a day.”

With new facilities complete, API already has an eye on the future. “We’ve already seen a growth rate of 35 percent this year,” Bill says. “In addition to our new home base in Greer, which has plenty of room for growth, we’d like to have a sheet plant in each of the four cardi-nal directions from here. We already have a plant, 3-D Packaging, in Asheboro, North Carolina. We’d also like to have one near Atlanta, one at the coast, and one toward the mountains in Tennessee.” Associated Packaging Inc. — a Greer company that not only thinks outside the box, but beyond the box. d

For more information on API, visit their Web site at www.associatedpkg.com.

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