Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • NPE exhibitors question handling of deposits for canceled trade show
      Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Getting back on the road
      How long will it take for EVs to replace internal combustion engines?
      Watching, and hoping, for progress in 2021
      COVID-19 stories dominate 2020 headlines
    • Kickstart: Attention, Walmart molders
      Kickstart: No one said returning to school would be easy
      Kickstart: Best foot forward
      Kickstart: Heading back to the office ... sometime
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • Plaskolite wins 3M supplier award
      Green feet: Braskem partners with Dansko on bio-based clogs
      Curbell donates plastic sheet for prosthetics project in Ecuador
      Covestro volunteers build ramp for Ohio veteran
    • Climate debate in Washington increasingly includes plastic
      There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
    • Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
      Just how big is thermoforming in North America?
      Changing names for compounders embracing corporate branding
      Diversity the key to outperforming the market
    • Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
      The benefits of getting social
      Rising Stars shine bright future on industry
      Getting back on the road
    • Perspective: Plastics manufacturers — a surprising contribution to sustainability
      Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
      Perspective: ‘Fake news' of a different sort?
      Perspective: Making products in the USA is good for the planet
    • Mailbag: Additional fees for electric vehicles ‘unfortunate'
      Mailbag: Where's the plastics industry's response to critics?
      Mailbag: Manufacturers struggling to follow COVID-19 safety rules
      Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
      Video: Structural foam molding
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      College training, programs
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - February 2021
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
      Polymer Points Live - December 2020
      Polymer Points Live - October 2020
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Sponsored By Ensign Equipment
      Filling Systems Customized for Any Process or Budget Need
      KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
      Sponsored By Mitsubishi
      Innovative new technology from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation helps reduce emission footprints
      Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Sponsored Content By Canon Virginia, Inc.
      Canon Virginia Inc. brings collaboration to the table
    • KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Shell
      Sponsored By Shell
      Food and Beverage Trends Impacting the Polymer Industry
      Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
December 13, 2012 01:00 AM

PE bags mean growth for Automated Packaging

Frank Esposito
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    B. Lerner

    STREETSBORO, OHIO (Dec. 13, 1 p.m. ET) — A journey through 50 years of plastics packaging began in a 200-square-foot garage in Queens, New York.

    That's where brothers Bernie and Hershey Lerner in 1962 assembled the first bagging machines that would become the foundation of Automated Packaging Systems Inc. Today, the firm is based in Streetsboro, Ohio, and operates nine plants at six locations worldwide. APS makes film that it converts into bags that are sold along with its broad line of bagging and sealing equipment, as well as machinery to make air pillows for packaging.

    “We've remained very true to our business model of providing machinery, materials and service,” APS President and Chief Operating Officer Cliff Brehm said in a recent phone interview. Brehm himself is an example of that longevity, joining the firm as a machine assembler in 1976.

    A 50-year milestone was far from the minds of the Lerner brothers when they were finding their way through the packaging world of the 1950s at various bag-makers and industrial firms throughout the New York area. But even at that point, ideas were forming.

    Author Bill Troy revisited those early days in We Celebrate 40 Years: That's Just the Beginning, an APS company history written in 2003. The book was combined with a new section by author Jennifer McKevitt in 2012 and republished as From Garage to Global: 50 Years of Innovation.

    “In their spare time, [the Lerners] hit on the idea of putting preformed polyethylene bags on a roll,” Troy wrote. “If they could do that and fill each bag with product quickly, they believed they could greatly speed up a packaging operation, making it far less labor-intensive.”

    Part of the challenge, Troy added, was that in that era, the use of low density PE bags was limited to either huge or tiny volumes. A product manufacturer could install a fixed-floor packaging line that would perform all needed tasks, but the prohibitive cost of such an installation meant that only companies with deep pockets and a huge market commitment for a single product could justify the investment.

    Those early machines, assembled in the tiny garage that adjoined Hershey Lerner's house, literally used sawed-off broom handles as spindles that pierced the sides of a cardboard box. A roll of 1,000 detachable PE bags was mounted on the spindle, with a small electric blower mounted on the box to separate the bags.

    In those starting days, Hershey's wife, Ruth, would make lunch for the small production staff, which included his daughters Karen and Anita. Most of the firm's early orders came from New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

    A key early addition to APS was Art Gould, who was brought on as a commission-only salesman and would become a partner in the firm. In back-to-back years, Gould undertook 10-week sales trips through Western states to grow the business. In those days, he recalled in the book, an order for 25,000 bags “was worth celebrating.”

    “One of my biggest problems was that the production process I was pushing was simple — almost too simple,” Gould said “What would you think if some guy walked in off the street and told you he could speed up a packaging function by a factor of 10:1 or more and then showed you a roll of plastic bags, a cardboard box and an air blower?”

    A crucial step in the development of APS was its involvement in 1964 with American Packaging Corp. of Cleveland, and executives Ridley Watts and Herbert Crowther. APC — which at the time was one of the largest contract packagers in the country — offered APS 6,000 square feet of manufacturing space at a new plant the firm was building in Hudson, Ohio. APS took the offer and relocated from New York, with APC acquiring a 50 percent ownership stake as well. Crowther would go on to serve as president of APS until 1974.

    During the APC era, APS would replace the cardboard box on its machines with a metal container. The Lerners and Gould also survived that first winter while sharing a mobile home near the APC plant.

    By January 1965, APS would have a 10,000-square-foot plant of its own in the Cleveland suburb of Bedford Heights. Within 14 months, the size of the Bedford Heights plant would be doubled to keep up with demand. In 1968, APS would open a second plant in nearby Twinsburg.

    The early core machine for APS was the Autobag H-50, which could seal up to 8,000 bags per shift. Just as importantly, Autobag-brand PE bags made by APS were the only type of PE bag rolls that could be used with the H-50. By 1972, the H-100 line would come along, capable of sealing 45 bags per minute.

    Additional plants in Garfield Heights, Ohio — another Cleveland suburb — and Keyser, W.Va., would be added by 1975. The Lerners and Gould also by then had regained full ownership of the company.

    One unique move made by APS ownership was the early purchase of 50 acres of rural land near New Philadelphia, Ohio. The land included a farmhouse and fishing and recreation areas that could be used by employees. APS now owns 150 acres at the site.

    APS created an employee stock ownership plan in 1997 and the firm now is 55 percent owned by its employees.

    “We all feel we have a stake in what happens,” Brehm said.

    “I'll always be glad we put the ESOP program in place,” Hershey Lerner said in the 2012 book. “Our people deserved it. They're what made us a success. Ideas without action go nowhere.”

    In 2012, Hershey Lerner at age 92 and Bernie Lerner at age 86 still come into the APS office in Streetsboro every day. Gould is semi-retired and living in Arizona.

    “I feel [APS] can survive under many different circumstances,” Bernie Lerner said in the 2012 book. “Our strength always has been our people and our culture. I believe everyone wants the culture to continue, no matter who's in charge.”

    Brehm agreed, saying recently that APS “has a built-to-last mentality, not one for short-term profit.” APS “is an institution that we're obligated to maintain, even if that means putting people ahead of profit,” he added.

    In the 2012 book, Gould also remarked on the changes that have engulfed packaging in APS' first 50 years. “Before plastics came on the scene, packaging was an afterthought,” he said. “It was something that happened in the back room when the product was finished. Now, packaging is an industry in itself. It's an integral part of product planning and presentation.”

    Brehm continues to give credit where it's due. The APS culture allowed him to move from the machine assembly shop to helping out with trade shows, to accepting his first sales job on the West Coast. He continued to climb the ranks and was named president and COO in 2010.

    “A lot goes back to the original owners,” he said recently. “They made sure that the people they put in management fit their goals and ideas. Everyone here is on a first-name basis. We're very tight-knit. We're not perfect, but we do our best.”

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Processor of the Year submissions