COM PANY HISTORY

In 1930s America, it wasn't so unusual for a child to quit school and begin working to support his family. After all, times were tough and money was scarce. At age 10, Mitchell John, a boy whose father died when he was only four, found himself in just such a position. After fourth grade, he joined the ranks of other young children whose schoolrooms were the farms and factories of America's small towns and urban cities. A native of Crowley, Louisiana, Mitchell began working for a company that made burlap bags used to ship the town's most important crop, rice. He worked for that company and other bag companies until the outbreak of World War II.

In 1941, Mitchell John left Crowley, a newly enlisted Private in the Army. He returned home in 1945 only to discover his job at the plant had been given away to someone else. But fiercely independent and full of plans for the future, Mitchell began looking for opportunities to go into business for himself. In the early 1950s, his dream became real when he opened Louisiana Bag Company.

Initially, Louisiana Bag Company's business was focused solely on supplying burlap and cotton bags to the rice farmers in and around Crowley. But as the reputation of the company grew, interest in the John's bags did too. In the 1980s, Louisiana Bag Company, now jointly owned and directed by Mitchell's sons, David and Peter, expanded to include not only bags, but industrial packaging products as well. Louisiana Bag Company became a one-stop packaging solution for customers, many of whom had been with the company for more than 20 years. The John's area of service also grew - extending throughout Louisiana and into the American South.

In 1992, the brothers opened LA PAC, a woven polypropylene bag manufacturing plant of both small bags and bulk bags. For the first time, the Johns were supplier and manufacturer of their customers' bags. In 1997, the two companies moved to a new facility. On Easter Sunday of 2003, that facility burned to the ground.

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