Our Story
Carolina Paper Company was started in 1999 in Oakboro, North Carolina, a town of 1460 people nestled in a river valley 40 minutes East of Charlotte by two good friends and business partners, Don Russell and Forman Rushing. The company opened up at 516 S.Main St. and was called Carolina Paper Convertors.
With Frank D’Amico as the Director of Sales and Marketing, the company opened up with two pieces of converting equipment, manufacturing jumbo roll tissue, center pull towels and hard wound roll towels. Frank had worked in the paper business as both a distributor and a manufacturer for many years and brought a wealth of knowledge to the company. For years, Frank D’Amico has been, and still is, the “Face and Voice” of Carolina Paper!
The owners relocated the plant in November 2000 to the former Stanly Knitting Mills building at 349 S. Main St. The Stanly Knitting Mills were the heart and soul of Oakboro. Established in 1946 by the Rodgers family, the company made Ladies hosiery for retail stores across the United States and at one time employed over 600 people at their two locations in Oakboro. The demise of the domestic apparel manufacturing industry in the United States finally caught up with the proud company and they ceased trading but the legacy of the old mill buildings on Main St and 5th St in Oakboro continues to provide employment for the people in the area in the shape of the Carolina Paper Company.
The company has experienced solid and consistent growth, and additional manufacturing lines were purchased to meet demand. A new combo converting machine for making jumbos, center pulls and roll towels was added in May 2005 and the company added folded towels to the product offering when a new multifolder machine was installed in March 2009.
In November of 2009 Dai Morgan joined the company as the Regional Sales Manager for the South Eastern USA after relocating to Florida from Southern California. Dai brought with him over 25 years of experience in the paper business as a distributor, redistributor and manufacturer in Los Angeles and teamed up with Frank to bring over 50 years years experience of working in the industry.
Frank and Dai were joined in January 2010 by Michael Rushing who had worked for six years in sales for a local janitorial supply distributor before moving into manufacturing sales as a Regional Sales Manager with special responsibility for National Accounts.
The company added a standard bath tissue machine to the mix in March 2010, which allowed CPC to become more of a full line supplier to existing customers and opened the door to becoming a supplier partner to larger independent, regional and national accounts.
The company name change to Carolina Paper Company in October 2010 was announced at the ISSA Show in Orlando along with the launch of the company’s two branded products, Blue Ridge and Ecowise.
CPC’s management team is committed to growing the company and has never been afraid to invest in both people and technology. A lot of advances have been made as CPC continually strives to keep ahead of the competition by adopting the "Best practices" of leaders in the industry. The company is very proud of the results of the hard work that has been put in by employees across the company to make their department more efficient, cost-effective and productive.
The company overhauled its whole packaging concepts and in conjunction with suppliers, overhauled the design and packaging of the product, reducing waste, improving efficiency in shipping, and lowering our carbon footprint. Plans are in place to add new automation where needed to increase efficiency.
A Total Quality program is in place where parent rolls are checked before being received into inventory to make sure that they meet CPC's specifications and new lab testing procedures are being put in place to check fiber content. In the factory, workers routinely pull product off the line to test through a battery of different dispensers to ensure that the product works. Cartons are time and date coded as they come off the lines so that if there are quality issues they can be traced to a machine, to a shift, to an operator and to the parent roll so that any issues can be addressed immediately. Accountability is a huge component of the Total Quality program and everyone at CPC works hard to make this program a success.
As part of the company's IT overhaul, customer service, manufacturing, purchasing, shipping, billing and AR functions were all interlinked and working together has never been more efficient. There are fewer errors made, less waste, and the whole process is cleaner and more enjoyable for everyone involved in these areas.
With all of these changes, one thing has remained the same at CPC since the very first day the company opened its doors for business. Commitment to customer care.
Being an independently-owned company, everyone at CPC understands how difficult it is to win a new customer and how easy it can be to lose that business.
Carolina Paper Company realizes that customers have choices and if we have the good fortune to earn your business we will do whatever it takes to maintain that business with you.
We are very proud of our company and look forward to continuing to grow with our customers into the future.
