The Nashua Corporation is an American company headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire that makes labels, specialty papers, and imaging products and services. On September 15, 2009, it was bought by Cenveo, Inc. As of early 2010, it had four factories in several states.
History
Nashua began as a gummed paper manufacturer in Rockport, Massachusetts. In 1898 the company folded. The owner, Charles H. Crowell, was an inventor and a farsighted entrepreneur. He sold his crumbling company to Carter, Rice & Company of Boston, who retained Crowell as manager of their new division, renamed as Winthrop Manufacturing Company. A fire destroyed the factory in February, 1904, which had moved to south Boston. The search for a new locale led owners Carter and Rice to Nashua, New Hampshire, where they found the heavily indebted Nashua Card and Glazed Paper Company, which had been founded in 1849 as a manufacturer of cardboard and glazed paper. During the California Gold Rush Nashua made playing cards for miners and became known as a result as the Card Shop. This name remained with the company for nearly 100 years. The owners of Nashua sold their factory to Carter and Rice for $74,000, plus mortgage. Thus, in 1904, the present day Nashua Corporation was founded. In April, 1904 the wholly owned subsidiary was incorporated. It became known as the Nashua Card, Gummed and Coated Paper Company. The new company combined the capabilities of both companies, continuing to manufacture the products of Carter, Rice & Company, namely gummed flats, gummed paper, and sock linings, and added the products of the previous company, glazed paper, cardboard, and "surface coated" paper. In 1910 the company had its first telephone installed along with new office machinery and boilers. That year the company also retained its first chemist, enabling research and development into the business model. In 1926 it bought the Knowles Youngblood Co., and in 2000 it merged with Rittenhouse, another printing specialty firm. Nashua Corporation sold its line of tape products to Tyco International in 1997. The tape products line was then divested as part of Covalence Specialty Materials which later merged with Berry Plastics. Nashua Brand Tape Products are now manufactured in Franklin, Kentucky.
