From Dairy Barn to Booming Business, "Bag Lady" Enters National Spotlight

What began as a small startup company in a dairy barn in northern Illinois has today become a multi-million dollar corporation with more than 800 employees worldwide. And for its founder, Maribeth Sandford, her rags-to-riches success story is about to be told on CNBC's inspirational program How I Made My Millions airing Monday, August 29th at 9:00 p.m. and 12:00 midnight.

The story of Maribeth Sandford is a truly inspirational American woman success story. As a single mom in 1980, and looking for a way to support herself and her children, Sandford decided to use her experience in graphic arts to begin printing logos on shopping bags. She borrowed $10,000 from her father to buy a printing press and set up shop in a dairy barn. Her focus was on printing small quantities of bags to suit her customer's needs. Selling bags by day and printing them by night, slowly her business began to grow. She paid her dad back...and then some.

Now a grandmother, Sandford runs a company that has topped $40 million in sales two years in a row and Bag Makers is becoming a family affair. The company has long named different bag styles after family members and featured her children and grandchildren on its catalog covers. Now her two children are helping to run the company too, together with 11 other family members.

"You start off very economically in a barn, and work after the kids go to school," says Maribeth Sandford, CEO of Bag Makers, of her early days. "It's the all American story. A woman starts a company in a barn and look where we are today. We're the nation's leader in what we do, kind of cool," says Bag Makers' President Chuck Sandford.

About Bag Makers

Bag Makers, Inc. is a leading supplier of non-woven, paper and plastic bags to the promotional products industry. Established in 1980, the company imprints more than 80 million bags each year to the corporate marketplace through a national network of promotional marketing companies. Today, Bag Makers employees 320 people in the U.S., plus 500 in its factory in China to produce more than 100 styles of bags. Using this global supply chain, Bag Makers also provides custom design and manufacturing services to its clientele.

SOURCE Bag Makers, Inc.

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