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An Outspoken Advocate
November 1, 2008 By: Esther Durkalski Hertzfeld Paperboard PackagingGreg Arvanigian was 28 years old when his father, George, died. Still wet behind the ears, Arvanigian says he jumped from the fire into the frying pan when he took his dad's place as head of Arvco Container, Kalamazoo, Mich.
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"Challenge isn't the word for it. You grow up in a big hurry," Arvanigian said back in 1997 about the challenge. He took over the management job of a $30 million company in 1989. Although his father specifically groomed him for the job, he wasn't planning on succeeding George under such adverse circumstances.
But the grooming paid off and now Arvco Container is a bustling, successful company. Not only did Greg succeed his father within the company, but Greg also followed in his father's footsteps in the industry as well. George was active in the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters (AICC), holding the position of president in the 1979-1980 term. Greg became very active in the industry and the association as well, holding the position of president in the 2001-2002 term.
George was inducted into the AICC and Paperboard Packaging Hall of Fame in 1985. Greg was inducted into this year's Hall of Fame.
A Marked Future
George, Fred Harrison and another minority partner founded Arvco in 1971. George started grooming his son to take over the family business back in the late 1970s when Greg was just a boy. When he was 12 years old, George would put him to work in the plant doing odd jobs, his mother Josie Arvanigian says. "At the time, he was young enough that he thought it was cool to go to work with his dad," she says.
When he was in high school, he participated in Junior Achievement, Josie remembers. He had that propensity towards business at that young of an age. When he was a junior in high school, the Junior Achievement honored him as Businessman of the Year.
"Without his knowing it, his future was being marked out," Josie says.
He continued the odd jobs — planting shrubbery, painting walls and basic maintenance. He then progressed to the design department, customer service, shipping, and the production floor. Greg has said this was the best background he could have had to learn the business.
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"I was just interested in it," he has said. "There weren't opportunities to study packaging like we have now. Even today, I feel the best learning experience in this business is just working in it. You can hire all the special expertise needed."
Josie remembers that George was a good teacher for Greg. "He wanted Greg to start from the ground up — to really learn everything," she says.
Out of college, he really wanted to go to California and be in a band, his mother says. But upon meeting his wife Jennifer in school at Central Michigan University, he decided to take a job locally at Arvco. His mother Josie remembers that she didn't think it was wise for Greg to work for Arvco right away — she thought he should work somewhere else and get a feel for the business world. But George felt that would have been a waste of time.
"I got shot down. His father was insistent that he come to work there — he felt he could teach him the business as well as anyone else," Josie says.
So, Greg became the third shift supervisor making pizza circles. Greg has said the hours on third shift were perfect — he was about to get married and had bought an older house that needed a lot of work. He worked all night, slept a little and then worked on the house during the daytime.
When he was 24 years old, he then married his college sweetheart Jennifer on Aug. 25, 1984. A year later, Greg was named plant manager. All the while, his father was training him and teaching him the business.
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