GREENFIELD — A company that’s been in the city for more than 110 years has closed its doors.
The Greenfield Paper Box Company has been sold to Friend Box Company of Danvers, Paper Box Company General Manager Roger Phillips said.
The sale resulted in 16 people losing their jobs.
Greenfield Paper Box Company began in 1906 and was purchased by Phillips, Brian Lowell and Robert Fischlein in 1976. The company produced specialty packaging, including rigid boxes and displays.
Phillips said the company has been looking to sell for the last three years and that employees were informed of the attempts, including offering employees a company buy-out, “but no one was really interested.”
Phillips could not provide what the sale price was for the company.
An attempt to contact someone at Friend Box Company about the plans for Greenfield Paper Box Company was unsuccessful Tuesday. According to the Friend Box Company’s website, the organization has been in existence for more than 130 years and provides specialty packaging.
Phillips said the company had bought some of the Greenfield Paper Box’s assets, such as machinery, as well as accounts.
“They’re a long-standing company, and also, we felt they would be a good fit for our customers,” he said.
Phillips added that the two buildings Greenfield Paper Box Company operated from on Pierce Street were not purchased. He said those will go on sale at a later date.
Phillips said the company closing is part of a larger local issue regarding manufacturing.
“I think our mainstay over the years has been manufacturing, and you can look at what has happened to manufacturing around here,” he said.
Phillips said when he first purchased Greenfield Paper Box Company in the 1970s, there were many tool and dye manufacturers, but the numbers have since dwindled due to manufacturing production going overseas. He recalls the company having about 30 employees during its peak years in the late 1990s to early 2000s.
“It’s bound to keep going,” he said. “It kind of has been for a few years.”
You can reach Dan Desrochers at:
ddesrochers@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 257