Great people make companies great, and we have one here at Yazoo Mills. We are a team of over 200 highly-skilled workers dedicated to providing our customers with the best quality, reliability, and customer service in the industry. We recognize that we would be nowhere without our great employees which is why we treat everyone like family.

At the close of our 120th year in business, we had the pleasure of recognizing all the contributions made by our hardworking team at our annual Christmas luncheon held at The Ballroom on Broadway in Hanover, PA. Over 185 employees gathered for a delicious luncheon catered by Hughes Meats, LLC. Additionally, each employee received a $100 gift card, a Christmas bonus, and a certificate or plaque for employees’ service tenure ranging from 5-35 years!

Thank you to our wonderful employees for making our year a success, and we look forward to a memorable 2023! 👏🏼

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Yazoo, we are proud to support the communities in which we operate, including the landmark treasures like New Oxford Train Station Museum. As part of the “All Aboard!” fundraiser, conducted by the New Oxford Area Historical Society, our contribution helped to purchase the land to keep the station in its original place. In recognition of the support received from this campaign, the NOAHS organized a plaque unveiling celebration as part of the premiere event in their “Resume in 22” schedule of programs. “Resume in 22” is the NOAHS organization’s efforts to restart, rebuild, and once again move forward with curated programs that celebrate the history and heritage of New Oxford and its neighboring communities. The society, in conjunction with the Borough of New Oxford, has undertaken a community campaign to raise funds to purchase the Borough’s beloved history railroad property.

In a kind gesture by the incredible volunteers who help support and give guided tours of the train station, they invited us on a private tour of the Train Station. We were taken on a journey through stories from the train station’s historical past as a passenger station built for the Western Maryland Railroad in 1892, and how crews would do their jobs and signal each other with whistles. We also learned about items like the original desk, ticket windows, phones, waiting rooms, whistles, lamps and lights, antique toys, operating model trains, and equipment used on the local and national lines.

Yazoo Mills has been a proud supporter of many fundraising events in New Oxford for many years. We recognize the importance the historic train station is to the community, which is why we donated $1,000 to the All Aboard! campaign. With our contribution, as well as many other local companies, the campaign was able to reach its goal of $40,000 in order to purchase the land which preserves the train station. We are proud to support the campaign and excited to watch them continue to preserve the train station.

If you find yourself in the New Oxford, PA area, be sure to plan a visit to see the New Oxford Train Station!

Here are a few more photos from our visit:

We are pleased to announce and welcome back Aaron Long as Marketing Coordinator at Yazoo Mills.

Prior to attending college in 2002, Aaron had worked as a summer helper in the recut department at Yazoo’s New Oxford facility. In 2006, his passion for creativity and problem solving began. He attended Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts where he earned a degree in specialized technology.

Aaron brings to his role more than fourteen years’ experience in design and marketing. He’s held several key roles with the most recent as director of marketing for a local professional services firm. During his tenure there, he organized all marketing activities including the development and delivery of a fully integrated marketing strategy. This helped to align and support sales goals across the company’s supporting divisions.

As a key member of Yazoo’s growing team, Aaron looks to apply his years of marketing expertise to continue to grow the organization as the industry leader and supplier of choice for paper tubes & cores!

What led Aaron ‘back’ to Yazoo Mills?

“Joining Yazoo Mills was a great opportunity to continue my professional career as a marketer, work closer to my family, and to be part of a family-owned company with a strong 120-year history that operates with honesty and integrity. It felt like the perfect fit to join a team of dedicated employees. Employees who are always willing to help, are aligned with the same goal to always strive for excellence, and the company’s consistent appreciation for their employees and customers. I’m thrilled to be part of the excitement here at Yazoo and look forward to continued success and growth!”

Outside of work, his greatest joy is time spent with family, especially his wife of 10 years, Ashlee, two children (7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter), and Yorkshire Terrier. He always looks forward to watching his son compete in sports, daughter’s dance recitals, family adventures and game nights. Aside from family time, Aaron also enjoys staying active with running, coaching, golfing, fishing, and tackling at-home projects.

A few fun facts about Aaron:

• He was a DJ for more than 8 years, providing entertainment at weddings, dances, parties and other functions.
• An art enthusiast, he took four classes in high school and an oil painting course while attending Lock Haven University. You will even find one of his paintings hanging in the hallway at New Oxford Senior High School.
• A three-sport athlete in high school; football, wrestling, and baseball.

Welcome back to the team, Aaron. We are happy to have you and excited to watch you excel in your new role!

Paper tubes are great for mailing and shipping products, storing items in a garage, and protecting machine parts.  But, they are also great for launching rockets!  We always say that the possibilities are endless with Yazoo’s paper tubes and this blog post proves just that!

The Rocketry Team at Spring Grove Area High School has been around for many years.  Each year, the team competes in several different competitions.  The Rocketry team members are held to the same academic eligibility standards that are set for sports, music and other groups.  The team must design, build and launch their own rockets without any help, aside from safety and supervision of construction from their program Director, Mr. Brian Hastings.

All rockets are designed on a program called RockSim that also allows students to do simulated launches with motors until they are happy with the desired flight and altitude.  After construction, Mr. Hastings conducts safety inspections before the rockets prepare for launch.  “F motors” and smaller can be flown near the school, while larger motors and rockets are either flown in MD or VA, which they try to schedule a monthly launch for.

The SG Rocketry Team is utilizing Yazoo’s donation of heavy-duty paper tubes for their Target Altitude team.  Rockets are required to be constructed from either cardboard or fiberglass tubes. Our paper tubes help keep the rocket stable during launch and are also going to be used to transport the rockets in the near future.  This team is responsible for getting the rocket to reach an impressive height of 1001’ on an F motor.  This well-known Rocketry Team has quite the impressive track record for many years.  In fact, this past weekend, Spring Grove took first place in the Target Altitude Competition at Battle of the Rockets.  This win placed them ahead of all high school and university teams!

Best of luck to the SG Rocketry Team as they are gearing up for TARC 2019, where they will compete against 800 teams nationwide in the world’s largest model rocket competition.  The top 10 teams will split over $100,000 and the top 24 teams are invited to participate in the NASA Student Launch. We’re rooting for you all!

con·​vert – to alter the physical or chemical nature or properties of, especially in manufacturing.

In a world where we can have basically (almost) anything we want at our fingertips, we soon forget the process it takes to make a product. A product cannot amount to anything great until it has its starting point.  In the converting industry, that starting point is a core.

Converting is the essential part of the process of taking raw materials and creating a finished product. This kind of process is crucial for industries specializing in adhesives, tapes, labels, film, fabric, flexible packaging, etc.  Converting cores are manufactured with each application in mind.  The cores must maintain their durability during and after the process of adding a product on to them.  Yazoo’s paper cores are manufactured from plies of paper of various thicknesses to attain the customer’s strength and performance specifications.

Slitting and rewinding is a common process that Converters use in their operations. A machine takes a product, unwinds the material through a series of blades that slits the material into smaller widths then rewinds it onto a new roll.  Our 100% recycled paper cores have the strength and consistency converting companies require to optimize their operations.  As speed increases on rewinding machines, Yazoo’s cores are designed to protect their inside diameter and core length, greatly reducing cost from waste. Custom capabilities such as covers, liners, embossing, etc. add unique value to a customer’s manufacturing process, without damaging the product.

The next time you purchase something, take a few minutes to reflect on the processes it took to manufacture the product.  You might just appreciate it even more!

We’ve been in business since 1902 and we are STILL growing, more and more each year. With our continuous growth, we are pleased to announce the hiring of Claire Alexander, who has joined our Order Prep Department.  Claire, a graduate from Shippensburg University with a degree in Geography/Surveying/Data Collecting & Processing, joins the Yazoo team as the new Document Preparation Specialist.

Before coming to Yazoo, Claire worked for a student loan company in customer service and a Navy support center as a Contract Digitizing Technician. Her knowledge, background and persistence helped pave the way for her new role with our company.  As a Document Preparation Specialist, Claire is responsible for pulling orders from the dashboard to prepare them for production, cross-checking all of the important details such as order specs, shipping requests, payment information and packaging specifications.  Once she has everything filled in, she prints a production order along with any specs that show the complete order details and shipping labels, then hands them over to the scheduler so they can get the production process started.

For Claire, she applied at Yazoo for a chance at a new experience. She saw an opportunity to gain new skills, be a part of an amazing company and have a much closer drive to home.  She enjoys the people she gets to work with.  Claire said “Everyone is friendly and willing to help if I have a question and it seems like everyone is on the same track of working together in order to keep the business in proper functioning order.” She also enjoys getting to learn a job that is new and different, feels appreciated by management which was hard to come by at her previous jobs, and the overall friendliness atmosphere that Yazoo presents.  Claire continues to say “The pleasantries go a long way here – whether that’s a friendly hello in the morning or someone complimenting how great of a job you’re doing.”

In her spare time, you can find Claire buried in a good book, playing video games or watching a show. She enjoys having board game and cocktail nights with friends, spending time with her husband and playing with their two cats and two dogs.  Congrats and welcome aboard, Claire. We’re excited to have you be a part of our team!

“A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” (American Marketing Association)

Branding is personalizing a product by giving it a name to identify with. Just like humans, we are branded by our birth given names.  People associate your name with everything; the good and the indifferent.  Branding for companies is much like that and helps facilitate a company’s unique distinction from the competitor’s brand.  It also creates an opportunity for brand loyalty with consumers who will essentially market your product for free by posting on social media about your brand and the packaging it arrived in.

Branding your company name or logo onto packaging is an integral component of the product inside. A vivid brand image on the packaging of a product develops a positive image and brings awareness as well as value to the company selling the product.  Marketing is a game between brands which is why companies need to brand their logos, names, etc. onto packaging to create a lasting impression among their customers.  Not only does it leave a lasting impact on them, branding of logos also helps consumers connect the product to your brand.

Our customers depend on Yazoo’s high-quality one and two-color in-line printing capabilities to set their brands a part from the competition. Keep in mind, the use of creative logos and designs with colors that stand out will help with promotional efforts of your company’s brand. When it comes to branding your company name and logo onto packaging, the ROI will be well worth it in the end.  Give our expert Sales Team a call today or Request a Quote to find out how Yazoo can help take your brand to the next level with in-line printing.

Our Sales Department team is growing and we would like to give a warm welcome to our newest team member, Sandra Garcia. Sandra joined the Yazoo team back in November and is currently working in our Customer Service Department.  Prior to coming to Yazoo, she spent numerous years in Customer Service/Marketing for Hain Pure Protein.

Garcia’s current job duties within her department are to provide top-notch customer service both internally and externally. She listens to the customer’s needs and helps them find the perfect paper tube or core sizes that they are looking for without any hassle and always puts our customers first. When asked what made her make the switch and come to Yazoo, she replied “I was looking for advancement opportunities and love that Yazoo promotes from within.”  Among the many reasons she likes working for Yazoo, Garcia likes the friendly staff and family environment the most.

In her free time, she likes to spend time with her family, go to the gym and stay involved in her church. We are very glad to have Sandra a part of the Yazoo team and look forward to watching her excel in her position!

We are pleased to announce the promotion of Jesse Smith as our new Winding Supervisor at our New Oxford, PA manufacturing plant. Smith joined Yazoo six years ago, holding positions in our Winding Department as a nightshift operator, dayshift operator, and lead person – all of which led him to his new role within our company.

In his new position, Smith schedules orders for production, checks quality of products, and makes sure that the work, orders, and products are flowing smoothly through the plant. When asked what he likes best about working at Yazoo, he replied with “The stability, great benefits, and the opportunity to grow as an employee within the company are just a few of my favorite things about working at Yazoo.  I’m given the opportunity to better myself and add to my knowledge base for the better of the company.  It’s great working for an employer that truly puts their employees first.” Mr. Smith brings extensive knowledge and experience to his new role within Yazoo’s Winding Department.

In his spare time, he likes to spend time with his wife and two-year-old son, Cash, hunting and fishing are pretty high up on his list of outdoor activities as well as going to the races and smoking a variety of food in his smoker. We are excited to see where Smith will lead his department and the company in his new position.  Congratulations on your well-deserved promotion, Jesse.  We are glad to have you as a part of our team!

A great employee that chooses to stay with a company is hard to find but at Yazoo, we’ve managed to find over 115 employees who treat our business like their own.  As a company, we believe in promoting within and are extremely happy to see our employees accelerating into new roles at Yazoo.

Meet Brittany Boozel – she started at Yazoo in 2013 and has been here for almost five years, although it seems like a lot longer than that. Brittany started out as Yazoo’s receptionist for about six months and quickly made her way into Customer Service in our Sales Department.  Brittany has shown tremendous effort in our Sales Department which prompted her to being promoted into her current position as a Sales Associate.  Within her new role, Brittany is working with customers for quote requests, answering questions about products, prices, and lead times, as well as providing recommendations for customer solutions.

When asked what she likes most about Yazoo, she said “I like how I am able to gain new knowledge every day and put it to good use. I also enjoy working with great people who always put the customer first.”  In her spare time, Brittany like to spend time with her boyfriend, five-year-old son, and golden retriever, finding new ways to decorate her new house, as well as being outdoors as much as they can – fishing, hiking, and riding dirt bikes are just a few of their favorite activities to do as a family.

Congratulations on your promotion, Brittany. We are glad you are a part of the Yazoo team!