Midland News

April, 2007

Midland Paper, Packaging Supplies Celebrates 100 Years of Growth, Outstanding Service and Value to Customers, Suppliers

Wheeling, IL - As Midland Paper, Packaging Supplies - formerly Midland Paper Company - prepares for its centennial celebration, President and CEO E. Stanton "Stan" Hooker III looks back over the company's history with pride.

"Over the last one hundred years, Midland Paper, Packaging Supplies has sought to provide value to customers through outstanding service, and value to suppliers through exceptional representation of their products," says Hooker. "As the company celebrates its centennial, our mission remains unchanged."

Though now poised to provide an expanded line that includes packaging supplies and equipment and facility maintenance products, the original company, incorporated in 1907 by E.S. Rookes, was solely a Chicago-based paper distribution operation. Control was held in a New York Railway supply company until 1935, when Midland Paper was purchased by Zellerbach Paper Company to operate as its Midland Paper Division.

When Zellerbach limited distribution to cities west of the Rocky Mountains in 1945, private investors purchased Midland Paper. It has been privately held ever since.

Hooker says that when he and current Executive Vice President Francis Morley acquired Midland Paper in 1983, they intended to raise the company's position in the Chicago paper market and then quickly widened their vision. The resulting growth initiative gained momentum in the early 1990s with the acquisition of Northland Paper and Hobart McIntosh. The company's most recent purchase was Capitol City Paper in July 2005.

According to Hooker, the expansion has paid off. In 1983, Midland had annual sales of $14 million. Today that figure has grown to revenues in excess of $700 million, making Midland Paper, Packaging Supplies one of the largest independent paper and packaging distribution companies in the country.

And while Midland has grown exponentially and launched new product divisions, it also remains responsive and entrepreneurial in its management mindset.

"We can now service clients in all 50 states and beyond through independent thinking and creative solutions, and we are as well-positioned today to meet the local needs of our customers and suppliers as we were in a single market one hundred years ago," says Hooker.

"We are certain Midland will continue providing the exceptional service and value that our customers and suppliers expect for another hundred years."

Midland Paper, Packaging Supplies provides printing & imaging papers, publication papers, packaging supplies & equipment, and facility supplies. As a member of both NetPrint and NetWork, Midland has the ability to service global clients with multiple locations worldwide. With headquarters in Wheeling, Illinois, Midland operates principal distribution facilities in Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota in addition to National Division U.S. sales offices that support its magazine, catalogue and book-publishing segments. For more information, please visit www.midlandpaper.com.