C.L. Smith

The C.L. Smith history page dates the company to 1975, when it was founded as a full-line container distributor of rigid packaging based in St. Louis, Missouri by C.L. "Bud" Smith. In 1988 the company launched Lyons Blow Molding, named after the founder's late wife, as an extrusion blow molder of HDPE plastic bottles. In 2005 Lyons Blow Molding moved to its facility in Berkeley, Missouri, and the HAZPlus hazardous materials packaging division began with an on-site UN certified package testing lab.

The page states that in 2012 the company added a 100,000 square foot warehouse one block from the Lyons Blow Molding manufacturing facility, and that in 2014 it purchased a 73,000 square foot facility a block from the existing plant and renovated it into a food safe manufacturing facility. It says Lyons Blow Molding Plant 2 started production in March 2015 and achieved IFS PACsecure certification on June 17, 2015, and describes "over 73,000 square feet of GFSI accredited rigid bottle manufacturing" producing product based on HACCP and GMP standards. The page does not claim ISO 9001 registration or FDA certification anywhere.

C.L. Smith (CLS) is a packaging company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its own site describes it as "a premier, full-service bottle manufacturer, UN Certifier, and full-stocking distributor of high-quality and cost-effective packaging materials and containers." The services it lists are packaging distribution, custom packaging design, decoration and labeling, and dangerous goods safety training, alongside blow molding manufacture of HDPE bottles through its Lyons Blow Molding facility and hazardous materials packaging through its HAZPlus division. It sells to businesses rather than to consumers.

The about page states the company was founded in 1975 and was privately owned until 2020, and that it is now part of Novvia Group, described as a national stocking distributor whose family of companies includes Inmark, C.L. Smith, Silver Spur, Container Supply, Fox Valley Containers, Rhino Container, Novvia Group Canada, Southern Container, Rahway Steel Drum and Northern Container. The home page shows figures of 1975 year established, 75 employees, 4 countries and 3,486k satisfied customers.

C.L. Smith's corporate headquarters is located at 15712 Westport Commerce Center, Maryland Heights MO 63146, in the St. Louis metro area, and the HAZPlus UN Package Testing Facility shares that address. The Lyons Blow Molding manufacturing facility address is 8966 Latty Avenue, Berkeley, MO. The locations page says the company "has several locations in the United States" and serves customers coast-to-coast, and the about page says it works through an extensive network of warehouse and distribution centers.

Other C.L. Smith branded locations listed by address are 1801 East Roosevelt Road, Little Rock, AR; 18101 East Colfax Avenue, Aurora, CO (listed under Denver); 50000 Proviso Drive, Melrose Park, IL (listed under Chicago); 3333 North Franklin Road, Indianapolis, IN; 6127 Deramus Avenue, Kansas City, MO; 1900 East Dale Street, Springfield, MO; 372 Titan Drive, Memphis, TN; 1918 Collingsworth Street, Houston, TX; and Fort Worth, TX. The same page lists sister-company sites in the Novvia network under the names Silver Spur Corporation, Rhino Container, Inmark, Southern Container and Fox Valley Containers, in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina and Washington.

C.L. Smith does not publish prices, price lists, rates or fees on its website. Every product and service page routes cost questions the same way: call a packaging specialist on (800) 264-1202, or complete the form so a packaging consultant follows up regarding the product request. The site's wording is "Please complete the form below and a Packaging Consultant will follow-up regarding your product request." There is also an online shop at shop.clsmith.com and a customer login portal. To get a quote or an estimate, contact the company directly rather than expecting a published figure.

The packaging distribution services page describes what a commercial supply arrangement can include. It says the company is centrally headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and serves customers coast-to-coast for packaging distribution and supply chain management, and that a geographic footprint of multiple warehouse and distribution centers provides multiple inventories, faster delivery and lower shipping costs. It states that a strategic partnership including a supplier agreement can offer price breaks on larger quantity packaging purchases, set pricing on packaging being supplied, and lower freight and warehousing costs with just-in-time deliveries. No numbers, discount percentages or contract terms are attached to any of those statements on the page.

The packaging solutions section of the C.L. Smith site lists these product categories: plastic bottles and jars, tubs, pails, flexibles and pouches, squeeze tubes, cartridge systems; glass bottles and jars; metal cans and metal pails; caps, closures, pumps and sprays; drum packaging, IBC totes and liquid bulk packaging; corrugated products; and a closeouts and specials section. The page describes the company as "a full service HDPE bottle manufacturer, a UN Certifier, and a Designer and Distributor of high quality, cost effective packaging materials and containers," and says custom bottles and blow molded containers are designed and made from stock and proprietary tooling at its Lyons Blow Molding manufacturing facility. It also states that a sourcing team and design team will find or design a container the company does not already carry.

Separately, a custom designed packaging page covers custom tooling, custom bottle design, custom boxes and custom retail or performance packaging, and invites customers to call with packaging ideas and challenges.

C.L. Smith's HAZPlus division offers dangerous goods safety training in partnership with Saf-T-Pak, described on the page as an Inmark company. The page states that dangerous goods safety training is mandatory for all hazmat employees, including people involved in preparing, handling, loading, storing and transporting dangerous goods by ground or air.

The roles the page says require DG training are shipping and receiving managers and clerks, general warehouse employees, material handlers and fork truck operators, production personnel, machine operators, hazmat drivers, hazmat packaging reconditioners, testers and manufacturers, chemists or regulatory personnel, and maintenance personnel.

HAZPlus is C.L. Smith's hazardous materials packaging division. Its page describes HAZPlus as "a leading provider of Hazardous Material Packaging, specializing in providing customers a single-source purchasing experience for all of their hazmat storage containers and hazmat packaging needs." The page states that as a self-certifier the company performs new and re-certification performance testing in its own UN/ISTA package testing facility and supplies customers with packing instructions. It also says the division designs custom packaging to customer specifications and carries tested and certified single, composite and combination packaging.

The hazmat product categories listed are special permit packaging, 4GV / variation 2 packaging, tin can packaging, hazardous material pail and drum packaging, plastic packaging, accessories, labels and placards, battery packaging, fireworks packaging, and safety and spill containment.

These are things people ask C.L. Smith that its published information does not yet cover.

• prices
• availability
• stock levels or inventory quantities
• minimum order quantities
• lead times or delivery dates
• un certification for a specific package
• regulatory or compliance determinations
• supplier agreement or contract terms