Mohawk Containers
Mohawk Containers, was located on Campion Road in the village and was the largest of 20 or so major box plants in Upstate New York. The firm had 250 employees and produced 530,000,000 square feet of corrugated board per year, more than enough to circle the globe with a 4 foot strip. They used 34,000 tons of paper a year.
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The company started in 1946 on Seneca Street in Utica with six employees as partnership of Virgil Masters and Milt Forward. The company moved to Campion Road in 1948. In 1958 Masters acquired full control and subsequently sold the company to Diamond International Corporation in 1968.
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They produced corrugated packaging in a wide variety of shapes. Packaging was usually printed in two colors. Each package was custom-made for a particular use and a particular customer. Engineering and design of the package was an important part of the services offered.
The plant contained 175,000 square feet of space. Sophisticated machinery was used to form board, core, print, and cutting. Design, engineering and testing facilities were extensive.
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Mohawk Containers sold to a wide variety of producers of goods with a need for packaging. Their markets were located within a 200 mile radius of the Campion Road Plant.
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Diamond sold its packaging, container, paperboard and graphic arts divisions (which included Mohawk Containers) to a joint venture of Jefferson Smurfit of Dublin, Ireland, and Clark Holdings Inc. of Chicago, in 1982. This resulted in the closing of the Campion Road operations. The sale price was approximately $80 million.
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At the time, Mohawk Containers was the sixth-oldest box plant in the country.
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