Imperial Bag & Paper Company threw a party for community and business leaders on Sept. 18 to celebrate the company’s move to new headquarters in Jersey City. More than an hundred people gathered at the new warehouse to welcome the company to Jersey City.
The building, on Route 1 & 9, is more than one million square feet, and Imperial Bag has leased slightly more than half of it. Even at half, the warehouse is massive. Picture the last scene in the Steven Spielberg film, “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and you get the idea.
This was a work day and the celebration took place in a tiny corner of the warehouse, while high-lows and pallet jacks ran up and down long aisles of merchandise, loading trucks for the morning while servers offer hors d’oeuvres to guests decked out for a dinner party.
The company’s move relocates operations from several locations in Bayonne to one central site off Route 1 & 9 in Jersey City.
Jason Tillis, president, said the move took two years to accomplish.
“This is a great space and we would not pass up the opportunity to move into it,” he said.
Robert Tillis, Jason’s father, and current CEO of the company, bought the Imperial Bag and Paper Company in 2007, although the company has roots going back more than 30 years.
Originally from Long Island, Robert became familiar with the business and its potential while working as a distributor and made an offer to purchase the Bayonne-based business.
Imperial Bag and Paper distributes products from Boston to Washington D.C. with a fleet of trucks serving thousands of customers. They also do business nationwide through other carriers.
“We have a specialty market for packaging and janitorial supplies,” Jason said.
Room for more expansion
Since 2007 Imperial has tripled its output, and Jason believes the move to the new 535,000-square-foot building will expand the operations even more.
Robert said he came from a manufacturing background and ran a company that provided paper shopping bags for businesses such as Macy’s and The Gap. Subsequently, he added plastic bags to his product line.
At the time, “Imperial was a customer of mine,” he said during an interview last year.
Imports had an impact on his core business. He eventually sold it and began to look around for another business opportunity, making a list of companies he was familiar with that he thought showed promise.
“I had traveled around a lot in my previous business,” he said. “I wanted something where I could stay home and enjoy time with my wife and kids.”
As a vendor, he knew Imperial was a good business, he said.
“Imperial was first on my list,” Robert said. “When I approached the owner, he was in his mid- 60s with no children and no apparent succession plan. It was a nice business and I asked him if we could talk about a transition. He said the business was ready to go to the next level, but he didn’t want to take it there.”
Robert took over the business on Dec. 31, 2006, and since then the business has tripled in size.
“From the day I bought the business I was in the recruiting mode,” he said.
He said in taking over Imperial, he wanted the company to give customers value and a reason to deal with Imperial. This meant frequent sales visit to each customer and examining what they were using.
“Then we would offer to provide them with a better product,” Robert said. “We pointed out if it cost more it was more likely to last longer. If they used a chemical that cost them $5, we might have a chemical that cost $6 but lasts twice as long. We did the same for mops and other products we offered.”
One of the things Robert and Jason did was focus on delivery schedules.
“We investigated the customer to know when the best time for us to be there,” Robert said.
The company currently employs more than 400 people, and owns a fleet of 100 trucks for East Coast deliveries. Common carrier truck companies move Imperial’s goods nationwide.
Jason said he believes that the relocation will increase business significantly and result in more local jobs.
The company deals with big and small businesses, and is still seeks to continue these relationships with service as a key piece of their success.
“We’re built to serve our clients, and we can do this even better from our new location,” Jason said.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.