NASHUA – Two C Pack Systems, a specialty packaging and box company that occupies one of the largest manufacturing sites in the city, is switching from Italian to French ownership, but shouldn’t be changing much else.

“It should mean all positive things for us,” said Marcia Frankl, human resources director for Two C Pack Systems. “It allows for more exposure, ownership by a larger, more financially stable company.”

Two C Pack – the name comes from packaging terminology – was established in 1981 as a subsidiary of Italian firm Fincarta Group. It came to Nashua partly by taking over the former Lowell Paper Box Co. In 2008, the firm moved into its current home off Amherst Street at 100 Northwest Blvd., taking over a 300,000-square-foot facility that had been built by Corning but never occupied.

The company makes specialty boxes for pharmaceutical, liquor, medical and other businesses – including heart-shaped boxes for high-end candy.

“We produce over 6 million heart boxes a year,” said Frank Shaffer, vice president for sales. “This is a technology that didn’t exist in this country until 2007, an innovative box design that really didn’t exist here.”

Two C Pack has about 98 regular full-time employees, and adds 100-125 temporary employees for seasonal work May through December, much of it related to making boxes for candy, Frankl said.

On Friday, the Fincarta Group announced it had been purchased by French folding carton and label manufacturer Autajon, which employs roughly 3,000 people at facilities throughout Europe and in New Jersey.

Autajon sells to market sectors such as perfume and cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and spirits – it’s known for its wine labels, as is befitting a French firm.

Autajon is larger than Fincarta, with current production capacity of 3.5 billion boxes and 16.5 billion labels per year. Autajon’s 2012 sales were about $580 million; it expects 2014 sales around $750 million.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Two C Pack’s current home was a sore point in the city before the firm moved. It was built by Corning when the glassmaker had big plans to move to Nashua and expand its telecommunications business, promising as many as 1,200 jobs here. When the dot-com bust hit in 2000, however, Corning abandoned those plans and the factory, leaving the huge building to sit empty for a half-dozen years.

David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531 or dbrooks@nashua
telegraph.com. Also, follow Brooks on Twitter (@GraniteGeek).