If You Invest and Engage, AICC Can Help You

December 5, 2018

I’m honored to be the next Chair of AICC. It’s been a long journey for me to this point. I started attending these meetings as a teenager in the mid-’70s and have been part of this great organization for a long time.

Back then, in an effort to get the younger generation more engaged, AICC started the “Sons of Bosses,” affectionately known as the SOBs. Some of you may remember that. Later, to attract involvement beyond family, it was expanded to our Next Generation program. Today we have the Emerging Leaders program. Though the name may have changed from when I was involved, the benefits to the next generation have not. Many who went through those programs with me over 25 years ago are now the owners of the companies they were representing back then. I know, at some point in the future, our current Emerging Leaders will do the same.

I’m also thrilled to be part of the fourth father/son or father/daughter combination that has served as AICC Chair/president. I’m proud to follow the steps of:

George Arvanigian (1979) and Greg Arvanigian (2001)
Don Morphy (1984) and Brad Morphy (2007)
Bill Flinn (1995) and Cindy Flinn Baker (2005)
Joseph R. Palmeri (1996)

Our company is a founding member of AICC. Jamestown Container was established by Glenn Janowsky in 1956, and my dad was one of the first five employees. Jamestown was among those first 51 companies present in St. Louis in the fall of 1974. We’re proof that multiple-generation companies have a great place in our industry.

As I enter my year as Chair, I have a simple message for the independents in our industry—in fact, for all our industry.

Whether or not you’re a small sheet plant trying to grow your business—if you invest and engage, AICC can help you.

If you’re a brown box plant trying to make the transition to graphics or digital—if you invest and engage, AICC can help you.

If you’re a box plant that wants to add a complementary business, such as foam fabricating, contract packaging, or packaging supplies—if you invest and engage, AICC can help you.

Or if you’re a large multiplant operation and may think you’ve “outgrown” what AICC has to offer, think again. You and your employees, too, can benefit—if you invest and engage.

No company is too big or too small to benefit from what AICC has to offer. To me, it’s pretty simple: AICC has helped our company, now in its 62nd year, and it can help yours, too.