our history

our timeline

Progress Paper box was founded in downtown Toronto by a new immigrant to Canada named Morris Lukofsky. Mr. Lukofsky’s company quickly became the leader in Toronto for any clothing store looking for beautiful packaging. The company started with a simple Rigid Hat box, and grew from there.

As the business grew, the factory moved north to the city of Downsview. By this time, Mr. Lukofsky had retired, and passed the business on to his son, Lou.

Mr. Lou Lukofsky was looking to retire. At the same time, David Hertzman was looking to purchase a business. The two were introduced, and from that point on, Progress has been run by the Hertzman family. At that time, the business manufactured rigid boxes and folding cartons exclusively. They supplied many of the leading apparel, gift and game merchants in Canada.

David had his first lucky break. A small, unknown Board Game company called Trivial Pursuit asked us to produce a small run for their big idea. Little did we know that would catapult into a major success that had our factory running 24/7 for years to keep up the demand.

By this time, our customers started asking us to source products that we did not manufacture in Canada. David’s family were one of the earliest importers from Asia, and used that expertise to develop a robust import program. We started importing luxury hand-made packaging from the Pacific Rim. We started in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and broadened out from there.

Progress acquired a stock packaging distributor called Jackson Packaging (later to be re-branded as Luv2Pak). For many years, we would only produce large, custom runs for big clients. With this acquisition, we could now support a business of any size with beautiful un-branded packaging.

Progress was one of the first in our industry to sell our product direct to consumer on our new website – www.luv2pak.com. Fun fact, the name Luv2Pak came from having it match our 1-800 number (you can still call 1-888-LUV 2 PAK).

Before it was popular, we took a strong view on sustainability in packaging. We developed a program called “Give Green”. The idea being – packaging could not only be beautiful, but also good for the environment. We eliminated as much plastic packaging as we could, and got deep into options that were recyclable, made from recycled materials or reusable. Many of these same principles exist today.

Progress’ import program was growing rapidly, and to support this growth, we opened an office in Hong Kong. This office supported our efforts to sell to countries in the pacific rim, as well as be closer to many of our trusted overseas partners.

At this time, the volume in our import program far outpaced our manufacturing plant by a ratio of 5:1. We were very fortunate to find a buyer for our factory in Albany Packaging. Albany is a leader in food and bakery packaging and was able to upgrade their equipment and talent with the acquisition of Progress’ machinery and factory staff. Since this time, Progress Luv2Pak focused exclusively on the design, import and distribution of packaging.

Progress celebrated 100 years in business. Many old and new friends came to join the festivities and relish in our company's great history. Concurrent to our 100-year celebration, David’s son Ben joined Progress after a career at Procter & Gamble. 

David’s son Ben ascended to become the 4th President of Progress Luv2Pak (and the 2nd generation of the Hertzman family). David remained as Chairman and CEO, though he spends far more time in a fishing boat and with Grandchildren than he does in the packaging business. The company is in great hands and ready for the future. We are proud to have sustainable, beautiful solutions that can provide a company of any size with remarkable packaging. Our expertise is broad and spans many industries. We know how to engineer to a budget and add enhancements to knock your socks off. We thrive in complexity and can manage any scale of project or distribution requirement. We love E-Commerce and know it is critical to the future of business. We have solutions to suit any business looking to sell in person or online. Please reach out – we would love to work with you!

READY TO LEARN MORE? CONTACT US:

Progress Luv2Pak

20 Tangiers Road Toronto Ontario, M3J 2B2 Canada

Tel 1 416.638.1221 or 1.888.LUV2PAK (1.888.588.2725)

 ask@luv2pak.com