Louis E. Page 2014 Catalog

~ Your trusted source for fence and mesh since 1893. 2 ~ Celebrating our 122nd year ~ Louis Eugene Page moved to Boston from Kenduskeag, Maine in the late 1800s. He found employment in a store serving the local horse trade with grain and hay. The store was located in Charlestown, MA where the Boston & Maine railroad had built a string of warehouses to serve the hay industry. Hay was an important and lucrative commodity for the railroad. At that time freight moved by horse-drawn conveyances and there was a high demand for hay. Setting up an office and warehouse space on Rutherford Avenue, Louis entered the hay business. In the spring mud season, impassable roads prevented wagons from hauling hay to local rural sidings to be loaded into rail cars. Page had to have at least 200 carloads of hay in the Rutherford Ave. warehouses to meet demand. Hay was purchased from as far away as Quebec and Ontario. Canadian shippers bought from the local farmers and arranged shipment by rail. By 1910, Louis and two of his brothers were making their living from the hay business. As gasoline powered vehicles began to displace horse drawn wagons, it became clear that the hay business would be one of declining value. Page's first move was to switch from selling types of hay suitable for horses to selling mixtures that would stimulate milk production in dairy cows. Dairy was a growing market. Small farms were being forced out of business and outlying dairy farms were growing in size and number of milk cows. With local acreage for producing their own hay limited and increasingly expensive, dairies had to turn to imported hay. In the late forties the dairy herds in areas such as Lexington, Malden and Revere were dependent on hay shipped by rail from many hundreds of miles away. Page also offset the decline in hay demand by adding new products. As an established hay dealer, Louis E. Page, Inc. had many farm and feed store customers. The chicken broiler business was experiencing rapid growth. There was also a growing demand for litter and bedding materials for both the dairy and horse trade. To fill the need, Page acquired exclusive rights to distribute Planter Peanut shells in New England. Peanut shells were soon supplanted by a better product - sugar cane bagasse. Page was the exclusive distributor in New England for the only US sugar company producing bagasse. This product also proved to be an excellent horticulture mulch and some of the large New England nurseries bought it by the carload. In the thirties Page added peat moss - both coarse grind designed for horse bedding and finer grind for horticultural purposes. Europe was the only source of supply at this time. Louis made several trips to Holland, Germany and Poland to line up sources. The 7-1/2 cubic foot compressed bales were wrapped in burlap and bound with wood slats and wire. After 1945 horticultural grades became the dominant interest and Page developed an exclusive arrangement with peat bogs in Canada. The end of WW II brought great changes to Louis E. Page, Inc. In 1950 Louis moved the office to West Concord, MA. Demand for hay in urban areas had dried up. Most of the hay moved by rail car. On a Monday morning it was not unusual for Page to have 50 carloads on track at one of three New England junction points. Once a carload was sold, it would be moved to a siding close to the customer for unloading. Over time, independent truckers began hauling hay directly from the growers to the farms, eliminating the need for the middleman. It was the same situation with peat moss. Feed and farm stores were still the most important segment of the company's customer base. New products needed to be added. The first additions were Belgian barbed wire and Mexican baler twine. Selling these new products required warehousing - a big change from the bulk commodity business. Early warehousing was done at public warehouses near the Boston docks. Customer response encouraged Page to further expand their lines. In a few years Page was issuing 2,500 catalogs annually, establishing Louis E. Page, Inc. as a New England distributor of wire mesh, fencing and related products for New England dealers. The 24 page catalog listed a wide variety of products from Belgian, Dutch, German, Austrian and leading US mills. Louis E. Page, Inc. developed a close relationship with the Belgian firm Bekaert, the largest producer of wire products in the world and was selected as their exclusive distributor in New England. Louis E. Page, Inc. outgrew its early dependence on the farm store trade. The annual catalog was soon going to fence companies, hardware stores, building supply dealers, lumber yards and other operations interested in wire mesh and related products. Due to the product spread of supplying mills, Page at one time stocked 86 different specifications of hexagonal mesh netting from five different mills. In 1967 Page moved its operations to Littleton, MA. Increased office space and substantial warehouse space enabled Page to handle the increased volume of business. A satellite warehouse was opened at J & F Farms in Derry, NH to service customers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Louis E. Page, Inc. has been responsive to the rapidly changing dynamics in the marketplace. With the steady decline of farming in New England and the appearance of big box retailers Page has become more specialized. Heavier meshes and fencing not readily available from hardware wholesalers have become a large portion of the business - wire meshes for specific purposes: beagle training pens, game bird pens, duck farms, wildlife containment, etc. Our numerous contacts over the years with many different wire mills has been a huge advantage. The customer base has expanded not only across all 50 states and beyond but also into new areas: municipalities, industrial manufacturing, wildlife management areas, etc. As Louis E. Page, Inc. celebrates its 120 anniversary, still family owned and operated, you are invited to celebrate with us! John, Ralph, Louis, Alan Page W. Concord, MA Louis E. Page

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