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August 11, 2025
GREEN BAY/DE PERE – Over the years, Owner Jeff Jaco said Cloveridge Converting has made a name for itself in quality, biodegradable paper products, including wipers for the agricultural and service industries.
So, Jaco said it made perfect sense to add the production of paper straws to the mix.
He said it’s the latest in a series of business moves he has taken since purchasing the formerly named Cloveridge Converting Corp. in 2006.
The journey to here
Acquiring Cloveridge Converting, Jaco said, was a “chance purchase” – originally intending on purchasing a stripping/waxing service company to add to Jaco Enterprises.
But while waiting on that, he said he learned about a struggling “little paper company” that was up for sale.
“I knew it could be a good little company, bought it and two years later, sold off all the [Jaco Enterprises] service companies to focus on Cloveridge,” he said.
Jaco said the decision has paid off.
The previous owner, he said, didn’t protect the marketplace, and he had his work cut out for him to regain market share.
Jaco said he acquired the competition in 2010, 2017, 2020 and 2022, and is now the last company standing when it comes to what is commonly referred to as wiper towels.
“Now, I own all those other companies, and we’re the last guy standing,” he said. “We got a lot of janitorial companies in the deal, and our customer base continued to expand. It also brought some new products into the field – items and material types they offered that we hadn’t gotten into as we didn’t have a demand for it – but once we took that on, everybody began buying a little bit of everything.”
Today, Jaco said Cloveridge Converting supplies its wiper towels not only to the dairy industry and janitorial accounts through distributors and direct-to-customer, but also performs contract converting on site.
“We’re the largest flat pack toweling [converter] and the leader in that industry for agriculture,” he said. “We do a considerable amount with IBA, a global player in ag supplies, supplying them and their dealers. Most of the big players purchase from us to feed their distribution, and other times, we work directly [with the customer].”
Jaco said about 80% of the business’s sales remain in the dairy industry – with the other 20% falling into a broad category that encompasses several industries.
That aspect of the business, he said, continues to grow, having recently added two new production lines.
One, Jaco said, is a sheeter to make flat wipers, while the other – which is just being finalized – makes dispenser towels that come out of a dispenser one by one, something he said Cloveridge Converting has never had the opportunity to offer before.
These additions, he said, will allow for the production of both higher- and lower-end towels.
Enter paper straws
Jaco said he often spends his mornings focused on the wipers side of the business at Cloveridge’s Green Bay location at 1836 Sal St.
The rest of the day, he said, he works on the paper straw side of the business at Cloveridge’s De Pere location (825 Prosper St.).
Though Cloveridge originally operated out of its De Pere location, Jaco said growth prompted its move to the Green Bay location.
Initially, he said he considered selling the Prosper Drive location, but purchasing Orcas Ocean Straws, a paper straw operation, changed that.
“That’s working well, because it now has its own building, and products made there will be focused strictly on the food service industry – starting with straws but expanding to include portion cups and paper cups,” he said.
To that end, Jaco said he is leaning toward renaming the business he purchased to Orcas Ocean Paper Products to be more encompassing, just as he renamed Cloveridge Converting back in the day to represent its broader offerings.
Similar to Cloveridge Converting, Jaco said purchasing the paper straw business involved a bit of happenstance as well, with him drawn to the listing on bizbuysell.com.
When he and his wife took an East Coast trip to visit a variety of dealers and distributors, Jaco said they called the seller and asked to connect with him while they were in North Carolina.
“He agreed, told us his story and we liked it,” he said. “We thought, ‘Let’s give it a try.’”
Jaco said he purchased Orcas Ocean Straws – including all the equipment – from the former owner, a restaurateur, who decided to sell because of medical issues.
The purchase, he said, included a solid inventory of paper straws that he has been able to draw on for current orders, though the equipment he purchased is staged and ready to go when needed.
“While the paper straw [industry] is new to us, it’s pretty much the same in that everything we do is biodegradable and [considers] the environment,” he said.
Unlike some of the paper straws on the market, Jaco said theirs stand apart because they are made from three layers, retain their shape and do not disintegrate in a person’s mouth.
“A lot of times, people get an experience with a paper straw from India or China that is two-ply, get paper in their mouth and get mad,” he said. “There’s a difference.”
Jaco said he acknowledges it’s a competitive market and the players are changing – but believes they’re set up to succeed with their small, efficient operation.
“We don’t have the overhead of any of these big corporations and private equity groups,” he said. “So, we are much more competitive and offer just as good a product.”
Jaco said he’s not worried about learning to use the new equipment – noting the training should be minimal and he plans to add staff as needed, when needed.
“If you’ve worked with enough of these machines in the industry, it’s not too much to figure out a different one and its quirks,” he said.
Complementing products
Jaco said he considers the paper straws a natural complement to the existing business.
Ninety percent of the wipers, he said, are created from rejected, gigantic rolls of product created by large paper product companies.
“Traditionally, those would go to the landfill because repulping is more expensive than virgin material,” he said.
However, Jaco said Cloveridge Converting swoops in, purchases the rolls and uses them to create wipers that are biodegradable and more absorbent – resulting in what he described as a “win-win-win-win” for the paper company, Cloveridge, the customer and the environment.
“[When we make wipers], we repurpose rolls and send them into a new market,” he said. “They’re not paying to landfill it, and we fill a niche in the process. It allows us to be competitive.”
Jaco said for him, each of these business endeavors is about pursuing something that looks like fun, makes a little money and does something good for the environment.
“At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about,” he said.
