Did you know the largest manufacturer of small paper boxes in the world was in Buffalo? Consider yourself now in the know! The F. N. Burt Company, whose sprawling factory complex at Seneca and Hamburg streets churned out upwards of four million boxes a day, was one of the largest employers in the Hydraulics and one of the shining lights of Buffalo industry.
F. N. Burt, an innovator in graphic design, was one of the most respected box manufacturers on the planet. Renowned for the glamour and sophistication of its manufactures, the company experienced tremendous growth in the early 20th century that coincided with, as well as contributed to, the emergence of the stylized box as an advertising vehicle for mass-produced consumer goods. Its prodigious, 400,000 sq. ft. factory complex is entirely intact – every building it ever constructed on Seneca Street from 1901-1927 still stands, a miracle by any standard in industrial heritage preservation.
The company, symbol of Buffalo’s progressive outlook at the early 20th century, made one particularly groundbreaking move in 1909 when it hired a female, Mary R. Cass, to be general manager of the plant – at a time when she was forbidden to vote in national elections and women were unknown in leadership positions at American factories. The fabulous Mary Cass, who almost single-handedly led the transformation of the small printing company to a manufacturing interest of world significance, was for the next twenty-five years one of the country’s leading business executives.
The plant was shuttered in 1959, the year the East Buffalo section of the Niagara Thruway opened and the company moved its factory operations to new facilities in suburban Cheektowaga. The complex, though vacant, is in sound and reusable condition, and is now owned by the Buffalo-based New Era Cap Co., one of the world’s leading baseball cap manufacturers.
A Buffalo Courier Express article printed September 21, 1952, has the plant’s story:
Burt Co. is world’s largest maker of small set-up boxes: Three to four million units a day
By Lee Griggs
Ever think twice about a box? Probably not. Boxes are so common that few people think much about them except the ones who make them. Boxes are everywhere. They’re convenient. There’s a box for every use, but there’s more to boxmaking than meets the eye.
The world’s largest manufacturer of small setup boxes operates right here in Buffalo. The F. N. Burt Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Moore Corp., Ltd., produces between 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 box units in every two-shift day. Burt operates a huge setup plant at Seneca and Hamburg, a folding carton plant at Main and Bryant, and a large warehouse on Babcock St., complete with rail outlet via the Pennsylvania Railroad.
All of Burt’s work is to custom order. Many customers renew their orders year after year, but colors, shapes and styles of boxes change constantly, presenting new problems for the company, which designs all of its own fully automatic boxmaking machinery.
Burt’s setup box volume is divided roughly into three equal parts. These categories are cigaret, cosmetic and pharmaceutical boxes, most of them specially designed. These are the basic types, but Burt boxes contain everything from face powder, mascara, pills and tooth powder to shoe polish, typewriter ribbons, fishing lures and phonograph needles. The variety is astonishing.
Some setup boxes are square or oblong. Others are round or oval. Burt is an extensive maker of oval and odd shaped boxes because no one has the ingenious machinery necessary to do it automatically, the only way it pays. In addition to making boxes directly to customer order, the firm also makes up drug boxes for resale to the stock drug trade.
F. N. Burt, founder of the company, went into business in August of 1886, but not making boxes. He was printing legal briefs at first and then expanded to include the printing of drug labels. When Burt finally got into boxmaking at 440 Main St. in 1896, his product was brightwood folding boxes, not the present setup type for which the firm is so well known today.
Five years later, the first of the Seneca St. units was built, facing Hamburg. This started a long line of expansions on that site, finally completed in 1927 to provide six floors and 400,000 square feet of space. The Main-Bryant plant, occupied in 1935 to accomodate customer demand for folding cartons, offers another 100,000 square feet.
Miss Cass becomes manager
Burt sold the business to the Moore interests in 1909 and retired the following year. His successor was Mary R. Cass, who served as general manager for 25 years and was considered one of the country’s most able business women.
Prior to World War I the big box item was cigarets. The company devised special machinery to turn out automatically some 250,000,000 of these hardwood boxes before excise taxes and the advent of the cup package killed the market. Now boxes are coming back strong. The public has accepted enthusiastically the Regent and Parliament type of cigaret box, which either opens from the top or slides out. Burt makes millions of boxes for both of these manufacturers.
As the cigaret business fell off in the 20s, cosmetic and pharmaceutical box demand took up the slack. Burt began packaging face powder in solid round and square setup boxes. The cosmetic trade soon supplanted cigaret boxes as the biggest production item. Today Burt is still the largest supplier to the cosmetic industry.
Many modern cosmetic boxes have transparent cellophane exposure panels. Others are decorated with Burt’s extensive lamlac finish. Powder boxes have transparent drums fitting inside the box’s base walls to prevent the powder from shifting, just one of the challenges Burt had to overcome to meet successfully the precise packaging demands of customers.
Materials arrive for processing from all parts of the country in rolls or flat sheets. Stock is then lined to specifications, after which specially designed and built machines for manufacturing do the glueing, labeling, stamping and assembling at tremendous speeds.
Paper, board and glue are the chief boxmaking ingredients. All these are subject to the effects of moisture, but Burt controls the conditions of manufacture so closely that parts can be fitted within a 64th of an inch.
The folding carton business at Main and Bryant comprises from 15 to 20 per cent of the total sales volume, depending on the trends of business. The plant offers a high grade lithographing service for cartons, producing a better quality than the letter-press method used by competitors.
In addition to making boxes, Burt will also furnish any prospective customer with a special consultation service to help work out effective designs, colors, print and type matter for merchandising. Manufacturers for the retail trade know the value of an attractive package as a stimulant to produce sales, and many concerns call on Burt’s know-how, born of long experience in box designing.
Machinegun parts
During World War II, Burt made a direct contribution to the war effort as a sub-contractor producing machinegun parts under government order. The company also produced 1,000,000 special cartons a day for the Medical Corps.
But there was another contribution. If Burt hadn’t come up with wartime paper substitute cartons for metal tins used to carry thousands of products during peacetime, many manufacturers might have been hard pressed to continue in operation.
Burt made jar caps from cardboard to replace metal ones, and even threaded them. Millions of asprin boxes, usually made of tin, were produced from paper. So were tooth powder containers as the Seneca St. plant worked around the clock. Brass was short and millions of paper lipsticks were made.
Pension plan for employes
The company has always prided itself on good labor relations. The product is light, clean and easy to handle, making work more enjoyable. Burt was the first box company to set up a fully funded pension plan for employes. As a result, turnovers have been slowed. Nearly half the Burt workers have been with the company more than 15 years, 15 per cent of them over 25 years and a rugged handful over half a century.
Today the trend is toward ever more efficient machine production. High labor costs have made machine production necessary to profitable operation. Manufacturing speeds have been increased steadily over the last 15 years as Burt continues to improve the quality of its vital service to retail manufacturers throughout the nation.
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