Heritage Packaging becomes part of the Welch Packaging family

[June 03, 2019]  

On Friday morning, former owner and continuing manager of Heritage Packaging, Greg Basford announced that he has sold the Lincoln business. Welch Packaging with owner Scott Welch began operations effective May 8th of this year.

Heritage Packaging has been in the Lincoln area for several years, first started by Alan and Nancy Prisk, then sold to the Tapper family, and finally to Basford in 2007. Basford on Friday said that the most important part of this story for him personally and for the community, is that Heritage is stable and will be remaining intact in Lincoln. There are no plans to move the company or initiate a significant change in management or staff.
 

According to Basford, Scott Welch, who purchased his first corrugated packaging plant in 1985, sought out Heritage because of its location and its stability in the marketplace. Basford said that Welch owns a number of businesses related to corrugated packaging and has a history of maintaining and improving upon what is already in place. The new mother company is located in Elkhart, Indiana, but according to their website has plants in Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. Welch Packaging serves 10 regional locations and have five distribution centers with more than 1,000 employees overall.

Basford said that talks with Welch began last year in August when Welch was looking to expand his reach a little further west. His goal was to capture the markets in the Chicago and St. Louis areas, and the Lincoln factory was in a great central location. The talks began as a proposal for Heritage to work for Welch in providing products into the expanded market area. After spending time discussing how to do this, Welch made an offer to buy the company.

Basford said that at the time he wasn’t looking to sell the company, and he definitely didn’t want to leave the company. Welch however was a larger business with internal assets that were of great value to Heritage. For example, the larger company has its own maintenance people for repairing the specialized manufacturing equipment. It also has its own technology team, just to name a couple beneficial differences.

Basford said that he now “has people” he can call when issues arise. He said for the smaller company this is a huge asset because in the past, he had to hire outside sources to do the work, or try and figure it out without the wealth of knowledge and experience possessed by the Welch teams.

Basford said when the discussions began to get serious, he was invited to Elkhart, Indiana, to meet with Welch’s staff and tour the plant there. Basford took some of his key personnel with him on that trip. He said it was really good to see the kind of connection his staff had with the Welch teams, and he marveled as he saw right away some of his people asking questions, seeking input on who to do particular tasks and more. He said it felt right and it felt good.

Basford said that long before the papers were signed, he began having conversations with his employees. He explained that he had some stipulations on the sale including that the plant would remain open and the current employees would be secure.

Basford noted that Welch is not the first opportunity he has had to sell Heritage. He said that Heritage is a good little plant that has done very well for itself. The corrugated packaging industry is a hot commodity right now and is benefitting from the “Amazon effect,” where that more and more people are buying online instead of going to the brick and mortar businesses. This is a trend that is still growing, and the demand for paper products is still increasing.

All this, and its location, Heritage was a desirable acquisition for other companies as well. But, Basford said he didn’t feel that those companies would purchase Heritage with the best interest of the employees and the community in mind.

Welch on the other had has a reputation for keeping things intact. Basford said that they talked about that and Welch noted that he had tried a time or two to bring new people into new acquisitions and he learned quickly that it just doesn’t work.

On the other hand, there is also room to grow the business even more with the new owner. Basford said that long term plans will include adding new equipment that will increase automation and at the same time bring in new jobs.

Heritage Packaging from its first owners to its most recent past owner has been a labor of love that has taken a lot of time, effort, and more than a few worries. For Basford, on a personal note, it is the best kind of sale and takeover because he gets to stay where he loves doing what he loves.

He noted that he hasn’t invested this many years of his life into the business to just let it go. He has no desire to leave, and was happy to find that Welch has no desire for him to leave.

Basford remembered some of his history, noting that when he came to Lincoln he was working toward ending a cycle of constant moves and uprooting of his family. He found stability in this area and was able to raise his family in one location for the last 12 years. Prior to that he said he was here a year, there a year, and that his kids were constantly moving from one new school to another. He said his wife and children supported his dream and were willing to take the risk with him when he purchased Heritage.
 

For him, that first year or two were humbling and nerve-racking. He said how unfortunate was it that one would go into a new business venture and live through an economic disaster just one year later. Basford recalled that in 2008 it was a struggle to stay positive. The company had good clientele and they didn’t lose any of their customers, but, the customers were feeling the crunch of an economy when buying stopped because money was tight, and orders decreased in size. Basford said in those early times, he would drive home every evening saying a prayer that tomorrow would be better. Eventually it did get better, and the company survived the storm and came out better than it had been. Since then Heritage has grown and expanded and worked hard to keep up with the times and the changing markets.

He cited for example, that the products that leave his plant are 100-percent recyclable and also made with at least 40-percent recycled materials; very important in this day and age.

Basford was asked if the change in ownership would take some of the pressure off of him personally, and allow him to slow down and relax a bit. Basford laughed and said, “I don’t know how to do this any other way! You can’t slow down and expect to achieve results. The Welch teams provide us with vast amounts of knowledge in-house that we didn’t have in the past. Nothing takes care of itself and you don’t grow by doing nothing. We have a good team here, and it is only going to get better.”

In summary, Basford is very excited about the future of Heritage, and he says his employees are too. At first there is uncertainty when change is on the horizon, but having his team know that they still have a future with Heritage is important to them and himself.

He noted that from the outside looking in, the community will see very little change. The company will remain Heritage Package, but will add to their name that they are part of the Welch Packaging Group. Other than that, everything is going to look the same and be the same, only better.

[Nila Smith]