With a young journalist's passion and his drive for business success, Atlantic Corporation began in 1946 when W. Horace Carter founded a small town weekly newspaper, The Tabor City Tribune.

Carter accepted a job as the industrial recruiter for Tabor City, North Carolina, with the added commitment to start a newspaper. He attacked both challenges with zeal but quickly faced an unexpected foe in the hooded faces of the Ku Klux Klan. Carter, a champion for justice, fought to purge his new community of the prejudice and violence the KKK promoted.

A two-year campaign of editorials brought financial boycotts of his small paper and death threats and vandalism toward Carter and his family, but he emerged victorious. His efforts exposed the Klan and sent scores to prison. For his bravery and community service the Tribune and Horace Carter were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1952, the first awarded to a weekly newspaper in the Pulitzer's history. That really began our Atlantic story.

Carter then searched for industry to energize the local farm economy. The textile industry had begun its migration from the Northeast in the 50's and Carter effectively recruited several needle-trade employers to the region. Though a committed journalist at heart, Carter's entrepreneurial spirit saw the opportunity to broaden his newspaper publishing business to offer general paper supplies to the new recruits. Commercial printing, office products, die cut garment inserts and janitorial products were our early items.

During the 60's the Carolinas prospered industrially and the Grand Strand resorts flourished. Carter formed Atlantic Publishing Company in 1965, later to become Atlantic Publishing and Paper Company, the printer and the distributor. APP focused on the interior industrial markets and food service and housekeeping needs of the beach resorts.

In 1971 Carter's son, Russell (Rusty), joined the business full-time and began a greater emphasis on industrial markets. Horace returned to writing for the newspaper and authoring numerous books.

In 1980 Atlantic acquired Crown Box, a well-established company in Wilmington, closest industrial area to Tabor City. Crown Packaging was formed with an emphasis on packaging equipment and material specialization.

In the early 90's Atlantic sold the institutional and food service business, continuing a concentration in packaging. Crown Packaging was merged with Atlantic, forming today's Atlantic Corporation d/b/a Atlantic Packaging. We added paper sheeting and rewinding capability in Wilmington by acquiring the equipment of a primary vendor, Anchor Paper of Charlotte. This was the springboard for our aggressive move into commercial paper converting for the printing, folded carton, and tag and label industry.

Atlantic purchased Shrink Packaging Systems of Winston-Salem in 1995, further advancing our packaging focus. Henley Paper Company's commercial converting was acquired in 1996, giving us additional paperboard converting capacity in the Triad.

In 1999 Atlantic acquired the remaining Henley distribution segment, expanding Atlantic's distribution locations to our present footprint. Atlantic, over 55 years, evolved as the market leader in industrial packaging and in customized converted products always guided by our customers' needs. The same work ethic and passion with which Horace Carter fought the KKK has driven Atlantic's spirit for service, performance, and integrity.

"The culture of our company began with the power of the pen, but today it's very much about the power of our people. We are proud of that culture and how it continues to underscore and direct us today and into our future."

Rusty Carter
President