The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Standard-Knapp merges with German company
PORTLAND — Standard-Knapp, an industrial packaging company that has been a part of the Portland landscape since 1940, has merged with a German company.
The agreement, which was approved this month by StandardKnapp shareholders, set in motion a merger with EoL Packaging Experts, which is headquartered in Kirchlengen, Germany.
That, in turn, is expected to yield more jobs and the installation of new machinery at the StandardKnapp plant in Portland, officials said.
The merger was completed last Friday.
StandardKnapp is located in a classic brick factory building at the intersection of Wolcott Lane and Pickering Street in the Portland Industrial Park. (Kirchlengen is in the Herford district of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in northwest Germany.)
The company employs some 60 employees in the 58,216squarefoot building. It is employee owned.
In announcing the merger, Mike Weaver, the president of StandardKnapp, said, “As a leading U.S. company of case, tray and shrinkpackaging machinery solutions, we are proud of what our team has accomplished over the past decades.”
“By joining EoL, we will be part of a strong international group to reinforce our technological leadership,” he said.
“I see EoL as the right organization to successfully ensure the future of StandardKnapp in the long term. At the same time, it will help us to deliver more value to our customers,” Weaver added.
StandardKnapp will partner with an EoL subsidiary, A+F Automation + Fodertechnik to produce endofline packaging.
In doing so, officials of the two companies hope to “serve the most important international markets and continuously work to expand their technological advantage,” StandardKnapp’s Eastern Regional Manager Richard Lagana said.
Town officials welcomed the news.
Mary D. Dickerson, the town’s economic development coordinator, said A&F has said it intends to move both machinery and employees to Portland “as they set about expanding their market share here in America.”
First Selectman Susan S. Bransfield last week welcomed EoL’s chief executive officer, Robert Rogier, to Portland.
On Tuesday, Bransfield said, “I’m thrilled that EoL has chosen to locate here in Portland.”
She said officials have told her they intend to add jobs in Portland an bring in a new equipment as well.
Beyond that, “StandardKnapp has been both a wonderful company and a wonderful corporate neighbor and employing dozens of our families and friends in good, wellpaying and highquality jobs,” Bransfield said. “And we’re glad to see EoL and StandardKnapp are partnering to make a stronger and more successful company both here in the U.S. and in Europe and elsewhere in the world.”
StandardKnapp’s history can be traced back to 1890, when the Fred H. Knapp Co. was founded in New Jersey, according to a history of the company on the website www.standardknapp.com.
The first Knapp labelers were shown at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
“In 1895, the Knapp Boxer, a handoperated machine designed to pack cans, was perfected. Apparently, it did its job well. In fact, it did so well that, as late as 1901, the Knapp Boxer was the only machine of its kind in the world,” the site says.
The site says that the New Yorkbased National Binding Co. began manufacturing paper cutting and dispensing machines in the early 1900s, but in December 1920, it declared bankruptcy. In 1921, the company was purchased by a group of past employees and subsequently resurfaced under the new name of the Standard Sealing Co., according to the site.
Meanwhile, the Fred H. Knapp Co., had expanded its operations to include offices in Chicago, Baltimore, New Jersey and a factory in Maryland.
In 1931, Standard Sealing merged with the Knapp company, creating StandardKnapp.
Increased demand for its products meant StandardKnapp had to expand its facilities again and, in 1940, StandardKnapp relocated to Portland, the site says.
Beginning in 1948, the company went through a series of acquisitions until 1984, when StandardKnapp was again purchased by its employees, again becoming an employeeowned company, according to the site. That status as an employeeowned manufacturing company led thenDemocratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton to visit the facility in September 1992.