100 Years of Innovation - A History of Felins

2021 marks the 100^th year that Felins has been in business, and we couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished over those 100 years. We have been at the cutting edge of packaging technology ever since Fred E. Lins started the company in 1921.

THE BEGINNING

Fred E. Lins was born in Germany in 1885 and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1889. 14 years later in 1903, he started the Fred E Lins Quality Sausage Company here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1921, holding a desire to improve sausage tying efficiency and sustainability, he came up with the idea to create a mechanical way to tie the sausage links using a foot-operated machine. So, employing the help of one of his coworkers, Frank Radechovsky, he developed the first version of the Pak-Tyer tying machine and applied for a patent shortly after. This technology was unique by design and from its initial development, the Pak-Tyer used a minimal amount of materials, reducing waste and costs while maximizing production efficiency. The patent was granted and when sales of the tying machine sky-rocketed Fred started a separate packaging company; with that, Felins was born.

 

INITIAL GROWTH

Soon after, Felins discovered that the Pak-Tyer tying machine could be used for a multitude of other applications, such as bunching vegetables and tying hoses, and we began selling the machine all across the Midwest. More businesses began discovering that this tying machine could eliminate employee injury, reduce packaging mass, and increase throughput. Though our machines have been updated to meet today’s technological and safety standards, they still do exactly this – reduce packaging mass, increase throughput and more. Additionally, similar to Fred’s early success across a variety of industries, Felins continues to provide packaging solutions in many new industries and applications today thanks to the versatility of our machines and, more importantly, the creativity and innovative nature of our entire team and distribution partners!

In the following years, Felins began offering different sizes, configurations, and features to the original tying machine to successfully serve an even broader number of industries and applications. This spirit of innovation and adaptability continued to help Felins thrive and we continued to exclusively offer industry-leading tying solutions with string, elastic, and eventually polytape. While doing so, Felins remained diligent in ensuring that our tying solutions would maximize their impact on the customer’s bottom line while minimizing their impact on the planet.

THE INNOVATION CONTINUES

Over the last 40 years, Felins shifted its strategy from exclusively tying and started incorporating new bundling and packaging methods. In the spirit of Fred, Felins began looking into new technologies to serve an even larger number of industries and applications. Through strategic partnerships with businesses offering top-of-the-line packaging equipment and Felins’ own research and development, Felins soon began offering a wider variety of packaging technology. These new machines included the Flex Strap stretch film banding machine, the Rotary Pak-Tyer, STS shrink wrapping systems, and, finally, the ATS-Tanner ultrasonic banding machines. Following this period of rapid innovation, Felins now has a portfolio of packaging technologies that are capable of meeting almost any packaging need in almost any industry.

Through the years, Felins has had to pivot and change with emerging and continually evolving market conditions. From agriculture to commercial print, we have experience with a variety of different industries. Fortunately, our packaging solutions are very versatile and can cater to a wide array of industries. We continue to seek out new applications and areas where we can improve sustainable packaging efforts. From the beginning, Felins has offered innovative, sustainable packaging solutions, so in 2018 we underwent a rebrand to better communicate this to our customers. As sustainability becomes an increasingly important issue, it also becomes increasingly important that our customers know that our packaging solutions can reduce waste while saving time and energy, increase throughput and benefit our environment and the bottom line. The rebrand resulted in a new logo (see below), slogan, mission statement, and more to renew our commitment to the planet and the commitment that Fred Lins first made when he started the company in 1921. We are excited to begin our second century of helping our customers develop unique, innovative, and sustainable solutions.