Salt Lake City: Livability in the 21st Century

UTAH PAPER BOX
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Above: Utah Paper Box, 920 South 700 West—our LEED Gold
headquarters building.
Right: Senior management: Teri Jensen, vice president, finance; Mike Salazar,
vice president, operations; Steve Keyser, president; Paul Keyser, chairman of
the board, 2013.
Below: Left to right, Wayne Sanford and Jim Keyser next to our first
big truck.
After a century in business, Utah Paper Box (UPB) is
sharing its history, including colorful stories from its past
and looking forward to many years of growth and continued
success. The company produces innovative, high quality,
sustainable packaging solutions and strives to meet
customers’ quality and timeline expectations while treating
them and UPB employees with integrity and as family.
Opened in 1914, UPB mostly made boxes for laundry
services until receiving an order from Glade Candy
Company for single bar candy boxes, then later for rigid
setup boxes. Thereafter, it made both folding cartons and
rigid boxes, for sales of about $4,500 that year. Employees
worked on a piece-work basis and made ten to fifteen cents
per hour.
When the Keyser Company, composed of Aaron Keyser’s
children, George D., Malcolm, Paul, and Helen, bought UPB
in 1922, George, was elected president. His brothers, along
with Al Merrill and Jim Ingebretsen, were directors. Using
original capitalization of $50,000, operations began at the
site of today’s Salt Palace, with Kirt (KD) Young as manager.
Several years later George’s son, James F. (Jim) Keyser became
a director, then secretary-treasurer and in 1946, manager.
Early foremen were Neil Soderburg and Cliff Peck. Jim’s son,
Paul, is currently chairman and his son, Steve, is president.
UPB’s history is colorful. In 1915 and 1916, material
shortages and cost increases brought shirt box prices up from
thirty-nine to sixty cents each. Women were hired to assemble
the rigid boxes in the early 1920s, and still do the majority
of production. UPB closed at noon on Christmas Eve,
with boxed dinners from the Doll House Restaurant served
to employees. Spouses and partners were invited in later
years, and the party was held in the manufacturing plant.
The cooking was done by Roy Peck and Wayne Sanford. This
and a summer party that was added later are still held today.
Machinery shortages after WWII led UPB to add a night
shift. Day workers’ hours were 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m. To keep
costs down, Jim Keyser, Ralph Bean, Wayne Sanford and
most production employees worked nine-hour days during
the week and five on Saturdays.
“During the 2002 Olympics, the Secret Service used
the east parking lot, and we shuttled employees to work
from other parking lots,” says Steve. “Everyone showed
photo IDs to pass the check point.”
In 1991, UPB purchased the former 7Up bottling plant at
959 South 800 West. This became the finishing plant and
later the central site for all UPB production. After a building
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