About Us
The History of Central Bag Company
In the early 1900’s Benjamin Silverman used to travel from farm to farm collecting used burlap and cotton bags in his wagon. He would take them into town to companies who would clean and repair the bags, then he would resell them to the feed mills and seed companies. One day he decided to eliminate the middle man and go into business for himself.
On October 16, 1929, Benjamin Silverman and his son, Milton, borrowed $250 from a local bank to start a new company. The banker asked what the name of the new company would be. As the story goes, Milton was looking out of the window when he saw a truck drive by with the word CENTRAL printed on it. He responded with the name CENTRAL BAG COMPANY. On October 16, 1934 the company was incorporated.
Benjamin passed away shortly thereafter in 1935, at which point Milton assumed control and was joined by his brother, Alex Silverman. According to Alex, this was when Central Bag Company was essentially established. It was at this point that the company moved from just repairing used bags to producing new bags of burlap, cotton and jute. The first plant was located at 3017 Wyoming just off Southwest Boulevard.
At that time, the manufacturing of bags was done by laying fabric on long tables and cutting by hand. The company’s main product was producing 100lb bags made from unbleached muslim which was sold to the flour milling industry.
The company eventually picked up automated equipment for this process and later a printing press. The company then added spot and band labeled dress prints and cambric bags, and continued to clean and repair used bags.
At the time the company was still small and insignificant in it’s trade, but then World War II came along. Cotton fabric became scarce, but Milton was able to secure a substantial amount of yardage through some mills they were doing business with. Cotton bags were selling at an all time premium, and Central had a corner on the market in this area selling everything they bought.
Pillsbury approached Central Bag to supply their needs, and Milton turned it into a long term contract making them the company’s largest customer, with Arch-Daniels-Mildland, Con Agra, Cargill Grain and General Mills following closely behind. During the war, Alex served in the Army Air Corps and returned to the family business in 1946.
In 1950, the company moved to it’s present location in the West Bottoms of Kansas City at 1323 West 13th Street. That year, Tom Simone joined the company after leaving Coca-Cola but was drafted into the service 6 months later. In 1951 the Missouri and Kaw rivers flooded the west bottoms area. Valuable papers were retrieved from the company’s accounting office by launching a rowboat from the 12th street bridge and climbing into the accounting office windows on the second floor. Many carcasses of cows and pigs from the flooded stockyards located behind the Livestock Exchange Building ended up in the basement of the building. The company recovered from this disaster and continued to thrive. Then in 1953 the company suffered a substantial fire to the sewing department located on the third floor. Again the company rebounded and was back in business within a short time.
Tom Simone returned to the company this same year after serving two years in Korea. In 1954 Milton’s son, Albert Silverman, joined the company after serving in the Air Force. Seeing the trend in the flour industry away from cotton to paper bags, Albert became a distributor for a local manufacturer. This business continued to grow as seed, feed and flour milling customers converted to the less expensive paper bags.
The burlap business continued to thrive in the potato, bean and peanut industries, and for export sugar and USDA export flour bags. At it’s peak, the Central Bag employed around 200 people and produced 125-150,000 bags per day in addition to the growing volume of paper bags that the company would buy and resell.
In 1975, the company purchased one of it’s customers, Valley Bag & Supply in East Grand Forks, MN.They were a warehouse and distributor of textile bags, paper bags and boxes to the agricultural custom prints. Over the years that followed, the product lines were added to as packaging evolved into plastics, both polyethylene and woven polypropylene.
In January 1988, Milton Silverman passed away. Without heirs from Alex or Albert, they decided to pass the company to and a lack of interest from potential buyers, it was decided to sell the company to the employees.
On May 15, 1989, the Silverman family instituted a 100% ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). At the time this was somewhat unusual as most plans involved only a partial transfer of stock, and 100% ESOP’s had a negative track record. Sales reached a historical peak in 1991 at $26.5 million. Tom Simone, who was vice president at the start of the ESOP, became president after Albert’s contract expired in 1994.
On June 12, 1998, the final payment was made on the ESOP note, making Central Bag Company and Valley Bag & Supply debt free and fully owned by the employees. Tom Simone retired in December 2000 after 50 years service with the company. Chris Klimek, who started with the company in 1982 after leaving Macy’s Midwest Division, was elected president in January 2001. Central Bag Company continues today at the same Kansas City West Bottoms location, one of the few companies still in business since before the flood.
Manufacturing continues in the 100+ year old brick building much the same as in the past, though this accounts for less than 10% of the company’s gross revenues. Product lines have increased with the addition of bulk bags, bulk boxes, geotextile fabrics (weed barrier) and newer laminated paper/poly and BOPP/poly bags that are supplied by both domestic and overseas manufacturers.
Though the founding family may be gone, the company still operates like a family business. The company’s founding principal, “A DEPENDABLE SOURCE OF BAG SUPPLIES”, has become the core of company’s new motto…
