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Article
An Outspoken Advocate
November 1, 2008 By: Esther Durkalski Hertzfeld Paperboard PackagingGreg Arvanigian was 28 years old when his father, George, died. Still wet behind the ears, Arvanigian says he jumped from the fire into the frying pan when he took his dad's place as head of Arvco Container, Kalamazoo, Mich.
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"Challenge isn't the word for it. You grow up in a big hurry," Arvanigian said back in 1997 about the challenge. He took over the management job of a $30 million company in 1989. Although his father specifically groomed him for the job, he wasn't planning on succeeding George under such adverse circumstances.
But the grooming paid off and now Arvco Container is a bustling, successful company. Not only did Greg succeed his father within the company, but Greg also followed in his father's footsteps in the industry as well. George was active in the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters (AICC), holding the position of president in the 1979-1980 term. Greg became very active in the industry and the association as well, holding the position of president in the 2001-2002 term.
George was inducted into the AICC and Paperboard Packaging Hall of Fame in 1985. Greg was inducted into this year's Hall of Fame.
A Marked Future
George, Fred Harrison and another minority partner founded Arvco in 1971. George started grooming his son to take over the family business back in the late 1970s when Greg was just a boy. When he was 12 years old, George would put him to work in the plant doing odd jobs, his mother Josie Arvanigian says. "At the time, he was young enough that he thought it was cool to go to work with his dad," she says.
When he was in high school, he participated in Junior Achievement, Josie remembers. He had that propensity towards business at that young of an age. When he was a junior in high school, the Junior Achievement honored him as Businessman of the Year.
"Without his knowing it, his future was being marked out," Josie says.
He continued the odd jobs — planting shrubbery, painting walls and basic maintenance. He then progressed to the design department, customer service, shipping, and the production floor. Greg has said this was the best background he could have had to learn the business.
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"I was just interested in it," he has said. "There weren't opportunities to study packaging like we have now. Even today, I feel the best learning experience in this business is just working in it. You can hire all the special expertise needed."
Josie remembers that George was a good teacher for Greg. "He wanted Greg to start from the ground up — to really learn everything," she says.
Out of college, he really wanted to go to California and be in a band, his mother says. But upon meeting his wife Jennifer in school at Central Michigan University, he decided to take a job locally at Arvco. His mother Josie remembers that she didn't think it was wise for Greg to work for Arvco right away — she thought he should work somewhere else and get a feel for the business world. But George felt that would have been a waste of time.
"I got shot down. His father was insistent that he come to work there — he felt he could teach him the business as well as anyone else," Josie says.
So, Greg became the third shift supervisor making pizza circles. Greg has said the hours on third shift were perfect — he was about to get married and had bought an older house that needed a lot of work. He worked all night, slept a little and then worked on the house during the daytime.
When he was 24 years old, he then married his college sweetheart Jennifer on Aug. 25, 1984. A year later, Greg was named plant manager. All the while, his father was training him and teaching him the business.
Arvco was almost sold to Inland in 1987. Papers were to be signed the week of the stock market crash when Temple-Inland announced a major stock buy-back program.
"The crash killed the deal," Greg says. "If it hadn't, I would probably be languishing somewhere as an Inland production manager. There are advantages in remaining an independent. It's just nice working for yourself."
Greg's next job was assistant to Arvco President Val Stevens. When Stevens retired in 1989, Greg was appointed executive vice president to run the day-to-day affairs of the company while his father still made the big decisions — Greg was still learning.
 When Greg was unable to attend an AICC National Meeting, Arvco Container made several life-size cutouts of its president. |
At the time, Greg had two small children. George had entered the hospital for what was supposed to be a routine surgery and unfortunately, never came out. His death was devastating to everyone, especially his family.
The Learning Curve
"He took the bulls by the horns, went through his learning curve, and went to work," Josie remembers of Greg's inaugural days of running the company.
The year before George's death (1988) had been a difficult one for Arvco with painful cost cutting and numerous price increases. Greg was active in the business, but had only been running the operations for a few short months.
"When you're a 28-year-old kid, I guess the upside is you have nothing to lose," Greg has said. "I had to depend on the managers. You make some mistakes along the way, but at least I wasn't set in my ways. I had worked in just about every department in the company so I knew the place well enough. I was pretty much on a management-training course from when I was a kid. That made it a little easier."
But it wasn't easy. Bob Ford, vice president of Arvco, has known Greg since the early 1990s. After George's passing, and Greg's succession, a lot of people were thinking the business wasn't going to make it.
"As confident as he was, he had a good team around him," Josie says. "The team helped him navigate the business. He had a good foundation so he grew into the job well. But it was on the job training — thankfully he was a quick study.
Right away, Greg pushed for ISO registration and according to Arvco, the company became the first independent corrugator to receive ISO 9001 certification. The company now also has 14001 certification as well.
"There was no other way to go back to our customers and tell them that we've got our house in order," Greg said in an Paperboard Packaging article.
The company also embarked on a major modernization program at that time. The company had a sheet plant in Indiana that was closed. There were two corrugator operations in Kalamazoo that were consolidated. New machinery was added to the Kalamazoo facility.
Fighting a Cause
Greg started coming to AICC meetings in the 1980s, AICC President Steve Young recalls and he had a brusque attitude. "Early on, he was a pain in the butt," Young says. "But once you get to know him, you know how knowledgeable about the industry and right on he is with his observations and predictions."
"I have always been impressed with Greg," Young continues. "No matter how it's packaged, his message was and is always accurate."
Greg worked his way up the AICC ladder to eventually become chairman in 2001. During his term as chairman (and he continues to be) he was a big proponent ECT values.
Tom Skinner, president of Phoenix Packaging, Winston-Salem, N.C., rose in the AICC ranks at the same time Greg did. He was president of the association the year prior to Greg.
"When he first came on board, he was a wild buck," Skinner says. "But he had so much common sense. He evidently paid attention to his father a lot more that anyone thought he did."
Since he is so outspoken, people thought he didn't know what he was talking about. In the long run, he was always right."
As chairman of AICC, Greg made it his mission to educate converters. "There are a lot of sheet plants out there that have had their board weights reduced on them and they don't even know it because somebody is trying to come up with a better number to supply them with sheets," he said.
Young says Greg was very interested with the integrity of the industry. "He wanted to make sure ECT values were what they stated on the box," Young says.
During Greg's term, AICC and the Fibre Box Association jointly produced the book Understanding the Performance Requirements of Your Customers Packaging.
Greg has also been the longest serving chairman of AICC's containerboard and regulations committee. "He has helped keep us focused on our mission," Young says. "Independents can't determine the source of their board. So they need a level playing field."
"The containerboard committee has been his passion," Skinner says. "He would take all of the complicated information and put it into laymen's terms for people like me."
Greg has given back to the industry, all the while, making it fun as well, Young says. "He has given back exceedingly to the association and to the benefit of independents overall — he's a real fighter for the industry."
