Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/100667
Today, Dever���s idea ��� now patented ��� is at the heart of SDF Strapping Inc., a Brillion manufacturer poised for huge growth as it enters new markets and invests in its future. The paper straps ��� which are used in industrial and commercial settings to bind everything from cartons in warehouses to hospital sheets at a commercial laundry ��� are not only seen as more environmentally friendly than their plastic competitors, but safer, too. ���They���re doing something really unique and attracting customers from all over the country and world,��� says Wayne Volkman, who retired as Brillion���s community economic director late last year and worked with SDF Strapping to help receive revolving loans from the City of Brillion and Calumet County to help get the business off the ground. ���We had a paper and converting industries. ���Being in the Paper Valley seemed like a great place to be so I could get the products I needed as well as tap into the expertise,��� he says. He found a machine shop in Brillion to make a prototype machine that creates the paper straps. Today, the machine shop is gone, but SDF Strapping remains in its place in the building, employing eight. The company recently invested in a third winding machine that will allow it to better meet the needs of its growing client list. From initial idea to full production, it took a lot of trial and error as Dever sought to make the paper straps mimic what the plastic straps could do, such as "give" a little yet bear sufficient weight. Throughout the process, Dever wanted to make sure that whatever straps were developed would be able to work with the current machines putting the plastic straps around products. Dever, along with his wife, Diane, who is environmental stewardship liaison for the company, often pack their trailer with samples and hit the road attending trade shows and visiting potential clients as a way to get out the word about their product. The company has no paid marketing consultant and works locally with Zander Press to design ���Once we get beyond the secondary packaging market, there���s the whole consumer packaging market ��� think of the little wires or plastic you have to cut through as you open something you bought at a store. The opportunities are endless.��� ��� Diane Dever, SDF Strapping co-owner and environmental stewardship liaison quarterly Calumet County economic update there last fall and we just opened a huge number of eyes about the things they���re doing. People had no idea something so unique and with a global reach was being done there.��� The road to Brillion As Dever began thinking about making his paper strap idea a reality, he teamed up with people he knew from the 24 | Insight ��� J a n u a r y 2 013 and produce the handouts it shares with potential customers. ���The response we get at trade shows is huge. People love this product and often are trying to find a way to use us,��� Diane Dever says. ���But sometimes to get in on a new project, it may take six months of legwork to work on the set-up and to figure out what we need to do here to make it work. We sometimes just don���t have the time when we have all of this other stuff going on.��� ���There���s so much potential,��� Ed Dever continues. ���Right now, we are focused on entering into the commercial laundry industry to see where that takes us. It���s something w w w. i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m