Boise-based Dixon Container Co grows with buyout of Republic Packaging of Idaho

Dixon Container Co. has purchased Republic Packaging of Idaho – and the MicronPC computer box contract that goes with it.

Republic operations on Franklin Road in west Boise will move to Dixon’s southeast Boise building of 43.000 square feet on Braniff Street, Dixon Container owner Doug Dixon said.

Chicago-based Republic Packaging Co. will market the 51,000-square-foot building on Franklin, east of Cloverdale Road, for sale or lease.

Dixon Container completed the purchase Nov. 30 for an undisclosed price. The buying company is taking Republic’s machinery to its plant on Braniff, and about 10 former Republic employees.

Because some jobs won’t be needed at the enlarged Dixon operation and other workers chose not to move, about seven Republic employees won’t go to the Dixon Container plant, Dixon said. Dixon will employ 55 on Braniff when the former Republic operations relocate by the start of 2002.

Mark Dillin, sales manager for Republic and an employee there for more than 16 years, will assume sales management for Dixon Container. Dixon will in turn focus on operations management and planning.

Dixon said he bought Republic for its foam-fabrication expertise “and their current business with MicronPC and other electronics manufacturers.” An affiliate of Gores Technology Group owns Nampa computer maker MicronPC.

He would not give complete contract details, but said the Republic acquisition will increase Dixon Container sales by approximately 30 percent – to between $5 million and $6 million a year – and that “the bulk of the growth will come from supplying MicronPC with its containers.”

MicronPC is the country’s third-largest direct seller to computers, and focuses on small and midsized businesses, government agencies and educational institutions, its website said. A spokesperson could not be reached immediately.

Dixon Container has 4 acres for future building expansion on Braniff.

“We will possibly be adding 20,000 square feet (there), to accommodate growth,” Dixon said, adding that the expansion is expected within 18 months.

Other clients for Republic, and now Dixon, with Treasure Valley operations include contract electronics manufacturers Jabil Circuit and Western Electronics, and vehicle fluids maker Energy Release.

The work for Jabil “has potential. It’s definitely a key account,” said Dixon.

The acquisition eliminates a competitor, “and adds capability, like high-speed foam fabrication and assembly,” Dixon said.

Republic specializes in designing and fabricating the foam interior cushioning that lines the corrugated boxes in which computers and other electronic gear are shipped. The company also makes boxes.

Dixon Container primarily has been a box plant that does some foam fabricating, Dixon said.

A key component to the acquisition is “marrying the foam-fab engineering to the corrugated sheet-plant business,” Dillin said.

Dixon Container has specialized in small and mid-sized manufacturing runs for much of its 17-year existence, but in recent years has taken in larger runs – as well as technology clients like Crucial.com, a unit of Boise-based computer memory maker Micron Technology Inc.

Combined, the companies become a “full-line packaging company” serving mainly industrial and electronics clients, Dixon said. Dixon Container also sells packaging supplies.

“We have faith in the Idaho economy, and we feel the electronics business is going to be back,” he said.

Dixon expects south Idaho’s technology growth to resume and its industrial growth to continue. “This puts us in position to capitalize on coming growth,” he said.

A “broad base” of companies of different sizes and in different industries has helped Dixon Container keep pace with last year’s sales in the slowed economy, he said.

Doug and Michelle Dixon own the company, which they started in a Meridian garage in 1984.

They also operate Dixon Container Retail, a separate company with a store in Overland Park Plaza near Interstate 84.

Other box makers with Treasure Valley locations include Boise Cascade, Longview Fiber and Spokane Packaging.