Local company may benefit from plastic bag ban

Amid a changing economy within the past four decades, employees of a company that manufactures paper bags have been quietly toiling in Brownsville — riding out the waves of good and bad economic times.

And they continue their work.

The Duro Bag Manufacturing Company plant at the Port of Brownsville has seen its ups and downs since the late David Shor of Kentucky opened it here in 1970.

"We’ve had slow times, great times and hard times, but that’s normal," plant manager Carlos Villarreal said.

Things might just get better.

In one of its first actions of the new year and one-of-a-kind in the state, the City Commission voted for a voluntary ban on the use of shopping plastic bags, which becomes mandatory in January 2011.

"We’re hoping for the good of the community, for the good of the people and the environment," said Villarreal, who also noted that the manufacturing company has been a proud and active member in the Brownsville community.

At present, the Brownsville Duro plant, one of 10 that continue to be family-owned with Shor’s son Charles Shor at the helm, employs 120 people who produce about 9 million bags a day, or about 40 million bags a work week.

All the plants, including one in Rio Bravo, Tamps., Mexico, produce billions of bags per year, including grocery bags, grocery sacks, handle bags, merchandise bags, lawn and leaf bags, lunch bags, pharmacy bags, liquor bags, bread bags, food service bags, and upscale paper shopping bags.

"You name it, we produce it. We’ve got everything for every need," Villarreal said.

But the process of producing a bag from the time huge rolls of paper arrive at the plant from the mills entails more than just cutting it, printing it, shaping it, gluing it, and boxing it for shipment throughout the country.

"Everybody thinks that a bag is just a bag, but it is a piece of art," plant safety and quality manager Augusto Chapa said.

"It starts with the art work and we also have to meet the company’s, customers’ and government’s standards," Chapa added.

The Kentucky-based company, that Shor first established in 1953, has in-house art departments in Kentucky and Florida that operate electronic pre-press equipment and that assist in the development of customer artwork, print layouts, and marketing material.

The late Shor located the plant in Brownsville unexpectedly.

The way the story goes, Shor loaned a man money and was paid back with the title to 300 acres at Palo Alto, but the property did not have access to utilities and other infrastructure. He came to see the property in 1968.

"He loved to go to the Oyster Bar Restaurant and in talking with people, he found out about the port and he liked it. It had rail lines, freight lines and shipping. He needed all that," Villarreal recounted.

Villarreal said that Shor’s associate told him that he was crazy to bring a plant to Brownsville.

" ‘You’re nuts. There’s nothing over there. It’s on the tip of Texas,’ " Shor was told.

"But (Shor) liked the people, too. He said they were honest and hard working and that it was enough to convince him," Villarreal said.

At one time, the plant had 250 employees.

"The bag business took a hard hit when plastic bags came about," Villarreal said, referring to the mid-1970s into the early 1980s when plastic bags hit the market place.

"The plant struggled, but it still kept going," Villarreal said. There also has been little turnover in employees. More than 50 percent of the employees have been with the company more than 10 years. Villarreal has been with the company for 25 years.

"We have been here for a long time and we will be here for a long time," he predicted.