Processor No. 4 KI Industries Inc. | Best Places to Work 2025

Berkeley, Ill.-based KI Industries Inc. recently celebrated its 60th anniversary as a company and its 25th anniversary at its manufacturing facility.

Its core values — authentic trust and respect, customer focus, life-work harmony, curious problem-solver, passion and drive, and safety commitment — guide everything the supplier of decorative products does.

"Celebrating 60 years of excellence, we've built a culture that values collaboration and continuous improvement. Our customer survey donation pledge allows us to make a positive community impact. We prioritize employee satisfaction with competitive benefits, ample development opportunities and a strong focus on work-life balance," the company said in its Best Places to Work profile.

"Our recent culture REBOOT emphasized open communication and recognition, fostering a supportive environment where team members feel valued. KI's dedication to innovation, quality and a people-first approach has created a workplace where employees thrive, knowing they are part of a trusted team driven to lead in high-quality plastic solutions."

All United States-based KI employees have an ownership stake in the company. Over the last 12 years, the employee stock ownership plan staff have received "12 percent allocations of gross wages into their retirement plan."

KI places an emphasis on professional development with coaching and mentoring initiatives. The company tracks critical roles and employees and develops action plans to retain key employees.

KI publicly recognizes its workers' achievements, such as work anniversary milestones and birthdays, on a regular basis. These events include company emails and gift cards.

"In our manufacturing environment, we recognize flawless attendance records on a monthly basis with a special personal gift/reward," the company said. "Safety is recognized daily, monthly and quarterly, and we track incident-free periods at each facility. We celebrate milestones and records. Additionally, we track and celebrate safety training achievements."

KI's strategy for recruiting and retaining employees includes university job fairs and job boards. The company incorporates a diverse team during the recruitment process and promotes the organizational values of diversity and inclusion.

With 90 percent of its team working remotely, KI leverages Microsoft Teams as its main form of communication and encourages remote workers to attend employee appreciation days, celebrations and town hall meetings to have face-to-face interactions with co-workers. Schedule flexibility also allows employees to meet the needs of their families and promote a work-life balance.

"These practices have made it easier for employees to engage with one another because of the relationship capital that has been built, which leads to heightened trust and respect, and builds upon the foundation of KI's core values," the company said.

"KI Industries is proud to be made up of such wonderful people that have gotten us to this point. We value all of our employees who do so much for this company," KI Industries said. "We are confident that the future of KI Industries will shine brighter than ever."

KI Industries ranks at No. 92 on Plastics News' most recent injection molders ranking with an estimated $90 million in related sales.