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Building a New Empire
May 1, 2009 By: Mark Arzoumanian Paperboard PackagingHere's how a long-term business relationship helped ensure a box plant's future.
It's not easy to admit that technology is passing you by. But a couple of years ago, Lewis Eagle, president, Empire Container Corp. (ECC), an independent sheet plant headquartered in Carson, Calif., not only came to that conclusion but realized that if he and his brother, Norm, vice president, didn't take action to keep the operation viable, it would die a slow death.
 The plant's Serenco rotary diecutter is often used to service the needs of the furniture industry. |
It's not that the Eagles didn't have the funds to invest in new technology, whether it's computer hardware or software. They just didn't know what to buy or how to maintain it.
They could have sold the plant to any number of integrated (or even independent) box makers in California and retired. But they didn't want to sell it and run the risk of helplessly watching the new owner usurp all the sales and close the doors.
What to do? Lew Eagle thought about all the good friends he had known over his decades of experience in the industry. That's when Hal Mottet popped into his head.
"I have known Hal for about 10 years," he states. "He was the general manager of the Willamette box plant [now part of International Paper] in Compton, Calif. I consider him one of the sharpest people I know in the industry. He's academically knowledgeable but also streetwise."
Can You Help Me?
In late 1995, Mottet had picked up a Procter & Gamble account. His plant could handle 95 percent of the order, but the remaining 5 percent was small trays that needed to be broken, not nicked. He learned from his sales manager at the time, the late Dave Daly, that ECC had the equipment to do this job. He asked Eagle if he would like to handle it. He said yes.
 No More Verbal Orders |
"I started a great relationship with Lew," says Mottet, who spent 20 years with Willamette. "I would get together with him every couple of months. He built a versatile organization by making small and large boxes and was always looking for niches. It was a soup to nuts approach versus blow and go at Willamette. Lew was always trying something, whether it be corrugated pallets, bulk boxes or promos. He developed a book bin for shipping textbooks in bulk. He also did a lot of targeted marketing and mass mailings. He was a marketing expert, segmenting and targeting. But he was afraid of technology.
"At our lunches I'd throw out just one open-ended question and then sit back and listen to Lew's salty opinions on everything from distributors to Roger Stone."
But in recent years Eagle's ideas didn't come as frequently and the operation started to tread water. Eagle became frustrated with the box making business. At one of their lunches he told Mottet that ECC needed new blood.
Then in June 2007, Mottet received a call from Eagle's son, David. He is a very successful broker at Merrill Lynch and had worked at the box plant years ago but had no interest in running it now.
 Short and Quick |
"My dad has some health issues and is looking to retire," David told Mottet. "Are you interested in buying the business?" David knew that his dad trusted Mottet and liked the way Willamette ran its box plants. That's because while at Willamette Mottet was told by his superiors to run the Compton, Calif., plant like it was his own business (a profit center). But, most importantly, Lew Eagle believed Mottet would operate ECC as an ongoing business, even though he never told Mottet directly he wanted to sell.
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