HOERNER WALDORF CORPORATION:

Hoerner Waldorf Corporation had its beginnings in Baker-Collins Company, a small print shop established in 1886 in downtown St. Paul (Minn.). By 1890 Baker Collins had become the H.L. Collins Company, and advertised themselves as printers, binders, stationers, and engravers. M.W. Waldorf had become secretary of the firm by 1894. By 1906 the firm was engaged in the manufacture of colored labels and folding boxes, and M.W. Waldorf was secretary and manager. The company moved to a larger plant located in the Midway District of St. Paul around 1907. Also in 1907 M.W. Waldorf established the Waldorf Box Board Company.

In 1915 M.W. Waldorf and Paul N. Myers created the Waldorf Paper Products Company in a merger of three apparently separate but cooperating companies: The American Paper Stock Company, suppliers of raw material; Waldorf Box Board Company, manufacturers of paperboard; and the H.L. Collins Company, converters of cartons and containers.

Waldorf Paper Products Company merged with Hoerner Boxes, Inc., of Keokuk, Iowa in May 1966 to form Hoerner Waldorf Corporation. An acrimonious proxy fight preceded the sale of the company in February 1977 to Champion International Corp., a Connecticut-based forest products company. In 1985 St. Paul management, led by Eugene Frey, engineered a successful leveraged buy-out that led to the establishment of Waldorf Corporation. By 1994 Waldorf, headquartered in St. Paul, was producing more than 400,000 tons of recycled paperboard annually, supplying printed boxes to large consumer products companies such as General Mills Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and Hormel Foods Corp. It at that date had about 2,200 employees, annual revenue of about $375 million, and was the fifth-largest privately-held company in Minnesota.

Frey and his family sold Waldorf Corporation to Atlanta-based Rock-Tenn Company in January 1997. At the time of the sale Waldorf operated nine paperboard recycling and conversion plants in seven states, with its principal manufacturing operations at its St. Paul plant.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions:

Copyright retained by the Rock-Tenn Company.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Hoerner Waldorf Corporation Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,581; 17,904

Processing Information:

Processed by: David B. Peterson, December 2000; Leif Kopietz, December 2022

Catalog ID number: 990017368710104294

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Audit reports, balance sheets, financial statements, and profit-and-loss statements of Waldorf Paper Products Company, its predecessors, and some related companies.

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Includes the monthly reports, financial statements, and other supporting documentation maintained and produced by the treasurer for the various iterations of the company.

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Includes correspondence, notes, proposals, and contract agreements with various companies.

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Includes manuals, guides, and presentations prepared by and for Waldorf Corporation management, as well as sales and promotions publications, catalogs, brochures, guides, packaging and product samples, and photographs produced by the Marketing and Consumer Packages Divisions of the company.

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Subject files contain clippings, disassembled manuals, and other information about the company's product lines, particularly its production of containers for processed foods; its St. Paul plant; Waldorf Paper Products' merger with Hoerner Boxes, Inc., and the resulting Hoerner Waldorf Corporation; a management struggle and proxy fight for control of Hoerner Waldorf, and its subsequent sale to Champion International; the establishment of an independent privately-held St. Paul-based company, Waldorf Corporation, after the leveraged buyout led by Frey; and Frey's sale of Waldorf Corporation to Rock-Tenn Company. There is information about various company executives, including Eugene Frey, Michael W. Waldorf, and Alvin J. Huss.

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Some financial statements and other records of the H.L. Collins Company, Waldorf Box Board Company, and Hoerner Waldorf Corporation are found in the Homer Pierce Clark and Family Papers in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Box making -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Cartons.

Consolidation and merger of corporations.

Container industry -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Corrugated paperboard.

International business enterprises.

Leveraged buyouts.

Packaging.

Paper box industry -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Paperboard industry -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Waste paper -- Recycling.

Places:

Midway District (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Persons:

Frey, Eugene, 1930-.

Huss, Alvin J., approximately 1904-.

Waldorf, Michael W., 1869-1928.

Organizations:

American Paper Stock Company (Saint Paul, Minn.), author.

Champion International Corporation.

H.L. Collins Company (Saint Paul, Minn.), author.

Hoerner Boxes, inc.

Minneapolis Corrugated Box Company (Minneapolis, Minn.), author.

Northwestern Corrugated Box Company (Minneapolis, Minn.), author.

Waldorf Box Board Company (Saint Paul, Minn.), author.

Waldorf Paper Products Co. (Saint Paul, Minn.), author.

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