 In
the early 1900’s while Henry Ford was putting the finishing
touches on his first successful car and Orville and Wilbur
Wright were figuring out how to fly an airplane: entrepreneurs
in Castorland, New York and St. Joseph, Missouri were laying the
foundations for two enterprises that would sustain themselves
for more than 100 years.
Samuel L. Hirschey founded the Climax Incubator and Brooder
Company in 1902. His patent for an incubator, which was
specifically for the hatching of chicken eggs, received many
national and international awards. Along with the incubator, the
company began manufacturing cheese drums for local dairy
producers and boxes for florists throughout the North East
United States. With the promising growth of these markets, it
was decided to discontinue the incubator segment of the business
and focus on packaging products. Climax Manufacturing Company
located in Castorland, New York was incorporated in 1904.
In 1905, in St. Joseph, Missouri another producer of folding
paper boxes and corrugated shipping cases was incorporated into
what eventually became St. Joseph Packaging, Inc. By 1915 the
company had been purchased by Levis C. Hamilton and thus was the
grassroots of a company that would remain in the Hamilton family
for the next 94 years.
Both companies were and continue to this day to be very
innovative, with at least five patents to their credit. In 1921
the Missouri facility was producing square paper pails for
packaging peanut butter. In 1933 they received a major contract
to print and die cut a cardboard chicken feeder for feed dealers
across the country. In New York, they were busy adding more
variety to their folding boxes product line as well and in 1939
with the purpose of securing a reliable source of raw materials,
Climax purchased its current paperboard mill. The paperboard
mill was acquired as a division of Climax Manufacturing Company
and is located in Carthage, New York.
In May of 2008, Climax LLC was formed when an investor group led
by Delta Point Capital Management LLC, based in Rochester, New
York purchased Climax Manufacturing Company. Co-investors
include Hamilton Lane, who is investing funds from the New York
State Common Retirement Fund, with additional financing provided
by New Spring Capital, licensed SBIC under the U.S. Small
Business Administration.
Climax LLC purchased St. Joseph Packaging on November 1, 2009
and in March of 2010 completed a separation of the paperboard
division from Climax Manufacturing Company to form three
separate legal entities; Climax Paperboard Inc. (formerly the
paperboard division of Climax Manufacturing Company), Climax
Packaging Inc. (formerly St. Joseph Packaging) and the original
Climax Manufacturing Company which makes up the original
packaging business currently located in Lowville, New York.
The seamless integration of these three companies provides
benefits that place us above our competition. Climax Paperboard
Inc. not only provides vertical integration for material for the
packaging plants, they are also diversified to offer products to
the graphic arts industry and paperboard components used in
bottle-sealing technology. Climax Manufacturing Company and
Climax Packaging Inc. with their wide range of equipment provide
the capability of providing material to the specialty retail,
food service, and industrial markets. The ability to take an
order, manufacture the product at the most economical plant and
ship from multiple locations is a plus for our customers.
All of our companies are dedicated to provide high-quality,
high-value paperboard and packaging products to our targeted
specialty markets. We will continue to operate with customer
focus, integrity and a commitment to our employees and our
communities. |
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