1903
Keyes first machine and Paprus line introduced
1930
Chinet invented
1933
Nyman Mfg. introduces paper containers and cups
1936
Keyes first foreign licensing agreement
1962
Keyes Canada, Norway, and France acquired
1970
Nyman Plastic Tableware line introduced
1982
Acquired by Van Leer B.V.
1994
Organizational restructuring
1996
Van Leer IPO
1997
Acquisition of Nyman Mfg.
1999
Huhtamaki acquires Van Leer
2000
Graphics Packaging, Inc. and Packaging Resources, Inc. acquired
2001
The Chinet Company becomes Huhtamaki Foodservice, Inc. | |
Huhtamaki Foodservice (known as
Keyes Fibre until 1994) was founded by Martin Keyes in 1903, as a small
pulp molding firm producing a single line of disposable pie plates for
use by commercial bakeries. The early growth of the Company was based
on rough finish products such as egg packaging, industrial products,
berry baskets, apple trays and prepackaging trays. The most important
development occurred in 1930 however, when a revolutionary advance in
pulp molding technology produced a smooth finish plate of exceptional
strength and whiteness. Introduced under the name Chinet, it was
immediately recognized by commercial food servers as a superior product
and was later introduced to the consumer market. The broad line of
Chinet plates, bowls, platters and serving dishes has grown gradually
and now accounts for a significant portion of the Companys business.
The Company began moving into overseas
markets in 1936 through license arrangements for the use of its patents
by foreign manufacturers. This has grown to a network of wholly or
partially owned manufacturing facilities, sales companies and licensees
which take the Companys operations into twenty-two countries.
In the 1970s the Company acquired
Huntsman Container Corporation, a plastics manufacturing firm and was
in turn absorbed by the Arcata National Corporation, a printing and
forest products company. In 1982 they were sold to Van Leer B.V., an
internationally known, Netherlands-based firm which manufactures a wide
variety of consumer and industrial packaging products.
The Company reverted to its
paper-only roots in 1989 when the foam plastics segment was sold to the
Fripp Fiber Corporation. In 1994 a major restructuring of the business
occurred, completing its transformation into a decentralized
organization. Its U.S. operations consisted of five manufacturing
plants: (Waterville, Maine; Hammond, Indiana; Wenatchee, Washington;
Albertville, Alabama and Sacramento, California); sales offices; the
Technology facilities in Waterville, Maine and the corporate
headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut. The Company was subdivided into
two business units (Foodservice and Consumer) and one profit center,
Fruit Packaging. In December 1994, the company name was changed from
Keyes Fibre Company to The Chinet Company.
In October 1997, the Nyman
Manufacturing Co., based in E. Providence, Rhode Island, was acquired.
They produced and sold a broad line of disposable plastic tableware,
plastic cups and paperboard food containers and cups.
In October 1999, Van Leer was
acquired by Huhtamaki Oyj and The Chinet Company became part of the
Huhtamaki Van Leer organization.
In 2000, HVL bought Graphics
Packaging Inc, a Malvern, PA based flexible packaging company, and
Packaging Resources Inc (PRI), a plastics manufacturer from Lake
Forest, IL, and divested the Van Leer Industrial Pkg organization.
In 2001, the U.S. organization was renamed Huhtamaki Americas and The Chinet Company FSBU became Huhtamaki Foodservice, Inc. |
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