Amherst Label has a long history or success, and continues to grow. In 2023, Amherst Label joined Inovar Packaging Group after 45 years as a family-owned, veteran-owned business.
Amherst Label History
The company was founded in 1978 by Nicholas Calvetti, a highly successful sales person and longtime service-oriented entrepreneur (pictured below far left). Within two years, business was booming and Nick Senior asked his son Nick to join the firm. Nick Calvetti, Jr., has been running Amherst Label since his father’s untimely death in 1981.
In their early days, Nick Sr’s wife Polly Calvetti managed the office. She was a frequent and welcome visitor until her passing in 2012.
Twenty years ago, Nick was joined by the next generation of Calvetti, his daughter Angela, and her husband Nye Hornor (each pictured with Nick below).
After his graduation from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2015, the third Nicholas, Nicholas Kepka Calvetti, joined Amherst Label (below, far right). More about Nick Calvetti Sr.
Looking Back: Nick Calvetti, US Army Ret.
Amherst Label owner Nicholas E. Calvetti, Jr. (retired 2023), was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1969 during the Vietnam era. He had just finished his formal education in the field of accounting at Bentley College and the University of Colorado. With both a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree, he was eventually assigned to the finance corps but started out training as a medic, learning how to dispense shots and care for injuries.
In the finance corps, Nick achieved the rank of specialist 5th class—the approximate equivalent of a sergeant— and served for two years using his background in inventory and accounting.
Private Calvetti was stationed at Fort Richardson Army base, neighbor to Elmendorf Air Force base in Anchorage, Alaska, a long way from his roots in Milford, New Hampshire. He had no trouble making friends because, according to Nick’s recollection, the other soldiers thought “finance meant payroll, so finance people were popular with the troops.” It didn’t matter that Nick had nothing to do with payroll in his job in inventory in the Px and commissary. He remembers working in a small office with two civilian office workers. And to add to his army pay, Nick had an extra job doing custodial work in the command center, keeping trash cans emptied and floors clean.
The boss’s two years of Army experience prompted members of the Amherst Label team to apply for certification as a veteran-owned company, a designation Amherst Label earned in 2014.
“We are proud to be veteran-owned and prouder still to work with other Veterans,” says Nick Calvetti.
The Amherst Label Family
If we totaled all the years of industry experience at Amherst Label, it would be an impressive number in the hundreds. Throughout our 45+ year history, we have put our custom label printing experience to work for Amherst Label customers year after year.
More evidence of Amherst Label’s commitment to family and tradition is the remarkable number of family relationships within the company. There are: three husband/wife, one father/daughter/son, three brother/sister, two mother/son, two father/son, one aunt/niece.
Loyalty is important, and at Amherst Label we have found that hiring family members fits well with our corporate culture where our people make the difference.
