MAYOR DANIEL M. KNAPIK
WESTFIELD – Westfield Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said earlier this week that he has spoken with the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Housing and Economic Development, Greg Bialecki, to see what the state’s interest is in putting a package together to save the former National Envelope in Westfield.
“There was an interest there, so we went back and opened up a line of communication with National (Envelope),” Knapik said of the conversation.
City Advancement Officer Joe Mitchell confirmed that, in addition to speaking with Bialecki, city officials have been in contact with Mark Hiltwein, president of Cenveo, the company which bought out National Envelope.
“Secretary Bialecki is interested in communicating with Cenveo to see what he can do to help keep the doors open here in Westfield,” said Mitchell. “They want to see what Cenveo’s needs are. The primary issue, as we understand it, has to do with the landlord and what the terms are with the lease.”
JOE MITCHELL
Mitchell said that topics of discussion between Bialecki and Knapik included possible funding to “bridge rent or to help move equipment to another facility in western Mass.”
“Cenveo is looking to lease or purchase 80,000 square feet somewhere in western Massachusetts where they are going to have a smaller manufacturing operation, with a couple of lines and their more modern equipment,” he said. “They want to employ 50 to 75 employees in manufacturing, engineering, and office folks such as customer service reps, and storage.”
State Treasurer and 2014 Gubernatorial candidate Steve Grossman, whose family has run the former Massachusetts Envelope Company, now the Grossman Marketing Group, for over 100 years, has spoken about efforts to aid the Westfield envelope manufacturer.
“Ben Grossman, Steve’s son, is a buyer for those guys (Grossman Marketing),” Knapik said. “They’ve had a 100-year relationship with National, they have one of the most extremely high quality products in that line of work, and they’re concerned that they don’t want to lose that product line from their portfolio.”
Knapik said that the younger Grossman told him they’re looking to do more business with National/Cenveo to help boost the company back up.
“Ben told me they’re looking to do about $3 million worth of work with them, so that is no small potatoes,” he said. “Their concern is that if the plant rolls completely up to western Pennsylvania, they’ll never be able to meet supply. They already have seen an interruption in supply from the Worcester closing.”
Knapik added that Cenveo is looking to maintain a presence in the general area.
“Whether it’s Agawam, Westfield, West Springfield, it’s pretty much who can come up with a building and a price point that fits,” he said.
Mitchell stated that Cenveo is also looking in East Longmeadow and Chicopee as well.
“We’re in the hunt, in the last three anyway,” said Mitchell of Westfield’s chances at retaining a facility.
Knapik said the National Envelope saga provides a lesson for all candidates vying for statewide public office.
“I think that is a pretty good lesson for Steve Grossman and Charlie Baker, that the next battle is probably going to be for job retention,” he said. “We don’t want to lose any more manufacturing jobs, and if that is identified as a problem, we need to retool our economic package to address that.”
