continued to acquire equipment for both sides of their operations. “We were limping along with our printer-slot- ters and hand gluers, and we went to an AICC meeting and met Gene Wicks [former owner of Boxes Inc. in St. Louis]. He had bought a Langston Saturn III flexo fold- er-gluer, and he said, ‘We can run the hell out of this thing and swiftly change from one order to the next.’” Brad credits NWPB’s membership in AICC for help- ing the brothers make prudent capital equipment invest- ments. He recalls meeting Jim DeLine and Jim Davis of DeLine Box and Kevin Hartney of Peoples Capital at a meeting in Chicago. “My brother, John, and I went to the meeting, and those guys kind of double-teamed us,” Brad says. “We weren’t married then; we were just a couple of single guys trying to figure out what the hell’s going on. They took us in and made sure we got to meet everyone. Kev- in Hartney was a great advisor who helped us make the decision to purchase a new Saturn flexo folder-gluer from Langston’s Ken Normann.” NWPB’s growth from that point required additional investment in converting capacity in its corrugated and setup box divisions. Initially, says Brad, the choice was used. “We bought other used equipment,” he says, “but we felt like it was all going to be a problem going forward, so [we] started buying new.” Rod looks after the equipment side of the business. CONTINUED ON PAGE 26
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