Robert C. Buchanan T'67
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"If letter writing is an art, so is making high-quality, watermarked writing paper."
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A Paper Man in the Digital Age
The last time you sent a résumé or wrote a business letter, did you print it on good paper? Or did you send it over the Internet?
"That's the problem with our business," says Bob Buchanan, president and CEO of Fox Valley Corporation, the holding company for Fox River Paper in Appleton, Wisconsin. "The fact is that Americans—even businesspeople—are writing fewer letters." But in an age when letter writing is at risk of becoming a dying art, Buchanan plans to base his company's survival on high quality.
Started in 1883 by Buchanan's grandfather, a Scottish immigrant, the company first specialized in making fabrics for paper-making machines. Then, in 1961, William E. Buchanan, Bob's father and a Dartmouth College trustee, bought Fox River Paper. The youngest of four children, Bob Buchanan had not been expecting to enter the family business. Married and with military service behind him, he had just earned his MBA at Tuck and accepted a marketing job with Ford Motor Company when his father offered him a position as assistant to the president of the paper company.
"It was a very exciting time," says Buchanan. "As a 27-year-old, newly minted MBA, I had a lot of ideas, most of which were wrong. But I was willing to take risks. I learned that you can never make a mistake by hiring good people and letting them run. We had a great time building the company."
The elder Buchanan sold the paper-machine business soon after Bob joined, and the remaining company focused on making paper. In 1974, Bob Buchanan became president of the paper company and then succeeded his father as president of the holding company a few years later. "Dad was an infl uence on the business until he was in his mid-80s. He never said, 'Don't do that.' He followed the premise of 'Let's get something done here.' For the last 15 years, we spent time together every day. It was definitely not a conflicted relationship."
If letter writing is an art, so is making high-quality, watermarked writing paper. The corporation now owns four boutique paper mills—in Wisconsin, New York, Ohio, and California. Each makes only 50 to 100 tons of paper a day, compared with 1,000 tons produced by a typical newsprint mill. Each mill is at least 100 years old and uses essentially the same technology as when it was built. "At this stage, what we do is so specialized—and the market is so small—that perceived quality is as important as price," says Buchanan.
"Watermarks are well-accepted security devices for law firms and accounting firms, which continue to be among our best customers," says Buchanan. "Watermarked paper simply can't be counterfeited." For instance, Fox Valley makes the heavily watermarked paper used to print checks from the U.S. Treasury.
The company also makes colored and textured papers for report covers, advertisements, and greeting cards. In fact, people who "care enough to send the very best" are often sending Fox River paper. To encourage the greetingcard market, Fox River works with schools such as the Rhode Island School of Design to teach young designers how the paper—the substrate—affects the image they hope to present.
"It will be interesting to see what happens with the next generation in terms of their correspondence," says Buchanan. "In the last six or seven years, our market has declined by almost half. But in the last 18 months, it has increased. Surprisingly, the writing-paper side is stronger than the cover and cardstock side. Our future lies with kids now in high school. How will they view connectivity?"
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