Avery Dennison Corporation History

Company Perspectives:

Our Vision for Global Leadership: We are committed to being the world leader in products, services and solutions that enable and transform the way consumers and businesses gather, distribute and communicate information. With innovative products and services, well-known brands and leading-edge technologies, we serve a broad and ever-changing spectrum of consumer and industrial markets all over the world--from graphics and packaging, to variable imprinting and automotive, to home and office products. Our products fit the evolving markets of advanced and developing economies--with consumer needs in mind. We will continue to take our technologies and capabilities into new markets around the world. To expand our existing core businesses. Or to create new ones.

Key Dates:

1844:

Aaron Dennison and his father, Andrew Dennison, begin manufacturing paper jewelry boxes in Brunswick, Maine.

1863:

The business is now a partnership, Dennison and Company, between Eliphalet Whorf (E. W.) Dennison, younger brother of Aaron, and three nonfamily members; in addition to boxes, the firm has begun making jewelry tags, display cards, and shipping tags at a factory in Boston.

1878:

Company is incorporated as Dennison Manufacturing Company.

1898:

Dennison's manufacturing operations are centralized in Framingham, Massachusetts.

1917:

Henry Sturgis Dennison, grandson of E.W. Dennison, begins 35-year stint as company president.

1935:

R. Stanton Avery forms Los Angeles-based Kum-Kleen Adhesive Products Co. to produce self-adhesive labels.

1938:

Kum-Kleen is renamed Avery Adhesives.

1941:

Avery begins supplying labels to Dennison, which the latter sells under the brand name Pres-a-ply.

1946:

Avery Adhesives incorporates as the Avery Adhesive Label Corporation.

1952:

Henry S. Dennison dies, ending more than 100 years of Dennison family leadership of Dennison Manufacturing.

1954:

Avery creates a division called Avery Paper Company (later called Fasson), which specializes in producing and selling self-adhesive base materials, often to competing label makers.

1961:

Avery goes public.

1964:

Avery Adhesive is renamed Avery Products Corporation.

1990:

Avery International and Dennison Manufacturing merge to form Avery Dennison Corporation.

1999:

European office products joint venture is created with Zweckform Büro-Produkte G.m.b.H.

2002:

Jackstädt GmbH, privately held maker of self-adhesive materials based in Germany, is acquired.

Company History:

Further Reading:

• Avery, R. Stanton, and Charles D. Miller, Avery International: Fifty Years of Progress, New York: Newcomen Society of the United States, 1986, 28 p.
• Barrett, Amy, "The Loved One," Financial World, February 18, 1992, pp. 26-27.
• Beauchamp, Marc, "A Sticky Business," Forbes, January 26, 1987, p. 61.
• Biddle, Frederic M., "Avery Dennison Wins $40 Million in Secrets Case," Wall Street Journal, February 7, 2000, p. B18.
• Chuang, Tamara, "A New Spin on Avery," Orange County Register, March 9, 2002.
• Clark, David L., Avery International Corporation 50-Year History, 1935-1985, Pasadena, Calif.: Avery International Corporation, 1988, 195 p.
• Darlin, Damon, "Thank You, 3M," Forbes, September 25, pp. 86-87.
• Dennison Beginnings, 1840-1878, Framingham, Mass.: Dennison Manufacturing Company.
• Dennison, James T., Henry S. Dennison, 1877-1952, New England Industrialist Who Served America, New York: Newcomen Society in North America, 1955, 32 p.
• "Earning a Comeback Label," Financial World, March 1, 1980, pp. 28+.
• Gellene, Denise, "Avery Scotches Unprofitable Tape Business, to Pare Work Force by 8 Percent," Los Angeles Times, November 10, 1987.
• Hamilton, Denise, "Avery Dennison and the Public's Big Stamp of Approval," Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1995, p. J12.
• John S. Keir, Portland, Ore.: The Dennison Manufacturing Company, 1960.
• Meagher, James P., "Avery International Co.: A Restructuring Has Improved Avery," Barron's, April 18, 1988, pp. 57+.
• Miller, Charles D., "Seeking the Service Grail," Financial Executive, July-August 1993, pp. 14-16.
• Nguyen, Hang, "Avery Acquires Stomp's Line of CD, DVD Labels," Los Angeles Times, February 14, 2001, p. C2.
• Oliver, Myrna, "R. Stanton Avery: Label Firm Founder," Los Angeles Times, December 13, 1997, p. A20.
• Paley, Norton, "A Sticky Situation," Sales and Marketing Management, May 1996, pp. 40-41.
• Peltz, James F., "Avery Dennison Sticks by Slow, Steady Growth," Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1998, p. D1.
• Penenberg, Adam L., and Marc Barry, Spooked: Espionage in Corporate America, Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus, 2000, 188 p.
• Pettersson, Edvard, "Wall Street Labels Avery a Good Buy, As Earnings Rise," Los Angeles Business Journal, November 8, 1999, p. 42.
• Rublin, Lauren R., "New Wrapping and Trim: Dennison Fashions a Handsome Recovery," Barron's, November 14, 1988, pp. 18+.
• Rundle, Rhonda L., and Joseph Pereira, "Avery, Dennison Plan to Merge in Stock Swap," Wall Street Journal, May 29, 1990, p. A6.
• Seventy-Five Years, 1844-1919, Framingham, Mass.: Dennison Manufacturing Company.
• Slater, Eric, "Industrial Spying Case Winds Down," Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1999, p. A19.
• Starkman, Dean, "Two Taiwanese Are Convicted for Espionage," Wall Street Journal, April 29, 1999, p. B16.
• Vollmers, Gloria, "Industrial Home Work of the Dennison Manufacturing Company of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1912-1935," Business History Review, Autumn 1997, pp. 444-70.
• Walters, Donna K.H., "Hello, Our Name Is ... Pasadena's Avery Dennison Has Turned Label Making into an Art," Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1993, p. D1.
• "Why Avery International and Dennison Joined Forces," Mergers and Acquisitions, January/February 1991, pp. 49+.
• Yang, Eleanor, "Avery Dennison Plans Job, Factory Cuts," Los Angeles Times, January 27, 1999, p. C2.

Source: International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 49. St. James Press, 2003.