To celebrate Valentine’s Day a few months ago, we dedicated our e-newsletter to the story of our founders and their love for packaging (and each other!). We received such incredible feedback from the story, that we decided to post it here as well, making it a permanent mainstay on our website.
Commonwealth Packaging was founded in Harrisburg, PA in 1959 by college sweethearts Jay and Diane. The mother of three young children at the time, Diane was the driving force in launching the company, encouraging Jay to start a packaging business where he would sell paper bags to discerning retailers in the area. He worked with local printers to brand the names of stores on their packaging. Meanwhile, Diane was a one-woman administrative staff—secretary, bookkeeper, office manager and everything in between!
As retailers' needs evolved, so did CPC— the business grew, new packaging products were introduced, more family members joined the staff and additional regions were serviced. Over the next few decades, retailers and hospitality businesses across the country of all shapes and sizes were brought into the Commonwealth Packaging family, many of whom we still work with today on their packaging programs.
Sixty-plus years later, Jay and Diane's legacy now includes three regional offices located across the country in Pennsylvania, New York and California, a customer base spanning from independent brick and mortar stores to international omni-channel retailers and hospitality brands, a team that has been with CPC for decades and their grandchildren joining the business to continue the "love of packaging" they started.
At our core, Commonwealth Packaging has and will always be a business whose core values are deeply rooted in family... and if you’re not part of our packaging family yet, we welcome you with open arms!