Preparation helped 3C Packaging bounce back from disaster

Joe Elphick was awakened in the middle of the night of Aug. 15, 2005, with news that a fire was blazing through his Clayton carton manufacturing facility.

The fire had started in the graphics department and destroyed one-third of the 75,000-square-foot building. The rest of the structure had to be gutted due to smoke damage. No one was injured in the blaze, but most of the equipment was rendered useless.

"We had a real, live fire drill," says Elphick, president and CEO of 3C Packaging, formerly known as Colonial Carton Co.

The fire, indeed, provided a live test of a contingency plan that 3C Packaging's management team had developed three years prior in case of such a catastrophic event.

A temporary "command center" trailer was set up on the property with computers tapped into all the company's client and data files, which had been backed up off-site. Elphick solicited the help of members of the Independent Carton Group, an association of 19 independently owned folding carton companies across the country, to complete customer orders still in 3C's pipeline.

Within 30 days, the fire site was cleared, and a temporary building was powered for partial production runs. Within nine months, a new building was completed and all new equipment installed.

In the end, saved was a thriving business that employed about 80 people at the time of the fire.

"We did not lose any customers because of the fire," Elphick says of the company, which was founded in 1979 as a producer of folded containers for pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food products. "And we've been able to put in the most modern equipment available and grow exponentially."

Elphick and his team even commissioned a video to document the company's response to the fire to offer assurance to future customers that 3C Packaging is ready for almost any disaster. "If they ask, ‘What if 3C burns down?' Well, we did. Been there, done that," he says.

Since reopening, 3C Packaging added insert and outsert printing services to its production line, necessitating an expansion of the company's operations on Old Garner Road – a $4 million, 40,000-square-foot addition. In turn, the company was granted up to $125,000 in property tax breaks by the Johnston County Board of Commissioners and the town of Clayton, confirms Mike DeSherbinin, economic development director for the county.

"They've been a great company," DeSherbinin says. "We're delighted they chose to rebuild … and even happier now that they've gone through an addition of 40,000 square feet. We're proud to have them."

3C Packaging now has 125 employees, and plans to grow to 250 employees by 2013. Clients include pharma companies Novo Nordisk, Merck & Co. and Hospira.

"We're doing more than folding cartons now," Elphick says.