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The industry refers to the product it makes as a corrugated box, but to most people it simply is a cardboard box, manufactured for the seafood, bottled-water and the paper-tissue and towel industries.
Employees gathered outside under a tent to listen to speeches and have a barbecue lunch. Tours of the 225,000-square-foot plant were offered to guests.
The plant closed for the duration of the celebration and reopened in the afternoon for business, General Manager Travis Dawson said. The plant typically operates 24 hours a day, five days a week, with the occasional Saturday shift, he said.
Dawson told his audience that the plant opened in March 1961 and was Georgia-Pacific's first box plant. The company then had stronger ties to the Northwest and opened here to serve the former Olympia Brewery. Georgia-Pacific's headquarters were briefly in Olympia before moving to Portland and later Atlanta. The company is owned by Koch Industries of Wichita, Kan.
The Olympia plant has grown to about 125 employees from 50 when it opened, Dawson said. Revenue, too, at the plant has grown 26-fold since its first full year of business, he said.
Dan Roberts, a western regional vice president for Georgia-Pacific who also spoke at the gathering, praised the employees for their work and safety record.
"It is a big deal," he said about the anniversary. "Not many businesses can say they have been in business for 50 years." The plant at one time also could rack up 20 or 30 or sometimes 40 accidents a year, but the number of accidents has fallen to one in the past year, Dawson said.
"It gives us the confidence to grow and expand," Georgia-Pacific packaging President Carl Marhaver said about how well the Olympia plant has been run.
Retired and new employees praised the business.
Gordon Wallace, 68, of Olympia, spent 42 years at the plant, the last 10 unloading trucks. He retired in 2009. Early in his tenure, he thought he was going to lose his job until 25 employees left to work for the former Olympia Brewery.
"Wonder how many wish they had stayed?" Wallace said. The brewery closed in 2003.
"It's been a real good place to work for me," he added, calling it a family-friendly job that paid good wages and good benefits. Hourly wage-earners are represented by the Teamsters; wages range from $14 to $22 per hour.
Lui Tangaro, 40, of Lacey, has worked two years at the plant after his 14-year career as a truck driver came to an end, he said. Tangaro was without a job for two weeks, then applied at the plant. He does a variety of jobs and plans to retire there, Tangaro said. Compared with his last job, it pays better, has better benefits and offers a better future, he said.
This is the second manufacturer to celebrate a 50-year milestone on Fones Road. In 2009, Crown Beverage, which makes beer and soft-drink cans and can ends across the street, celebrated 50 years in Olympia.
Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403
rboone@theolympian.com
www.theolympian.com/bizblog
