If you ask the average Evansville resident what kinds of plastic products Berry Plastics makes, you'll probably get a puzzled look.
Yet, as Ira Boots, president and chief executive officer of the company, points out, the average person likely uses Berry products from the time he wakes up in the morning to the time he goes to bed.
"In the morning we would be your shampoo tops, your mouthwash containers, your deodorant containers," Boots said.
At breakfast, Berry would have made your containers for yogurt, cream cheese or your muffin mix.
During the day, if you reach for cleaning materials, the aerosol over-caps and plastic thread tops on these containers may be made by Berry.
At lunch, the fast food drinks you order may well be served in a cup made at Berry Plastics, as will the containers of the salad at the salad bar.
Berry may well make the twist-off caps on medications you take during the day or evening, as well as the prescription vials.
At dinner, the single-serving entrees may come in Berry containers.
Berry also makes many of the liquor caps on the liquor bottles.
"We cover your day," Boots said.
And for many of these products - aerosol over-caps, injection-molded thin-walled containers, large plastic thermo-formed drink cups, liquor caps, squeeze tubes - Berry is the largest supplier in the world.
The company's list of corporate clients reads like a Who's Who of American business. It includes McDonald's, Procter & Gamble, Hershey, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Bayer, Clorox, General Mills, Pepsi-Cola and Burger King.
Berry Plastics today is an international plastics packaging company that does about $1.28 billion in sales annually and employs about 7,000 in 25 facilities worldwide. It has facilities in Norwich, England; Milan, Italy; Mexico City; and Guangzhou, China.
But the company remains based at 101 Oakley Street in Downtown Evansville. "The largest percent of our work force is located in Evansville," Boots said.
"Evansville employees have all the necessary skills for us to remain a successful business. We fully expect to maintain a presence in Evansville," he said.
Berry Plastics traces its history back to Robert E. Morris, who founded Imperial Plastics in 1967 in Evansville. The company's insignia was a crown, which Berry still uses as its logo today.
Imperial Plastics became Berry Plastics in 1983 when it was bought by Jack Berry, Sr., a Florida businessman. In 1989, J.P. Morgan first acquired an ownership stake in the company and in 2002, Goldman Sachs did.
Today, Goldman Sachs owns about 46 percent of the company, J.P. Morgan about 32 percent and Berry management about 22 percent, Boots said.
Over the years, the company acquired several other plastics companies, including Gilbert Plastics of New Brunswick, N.J., Mammoth Containers (Iowa Falls, Iowa) division of Genpak Corporation, Sterling Products of Winchester, Va. and many other companies.
The company essentially has remained focused on the plastic containers business, but expanded the variety of plastic containers it makes, Boots said. It plans to continue in that role.
Over the last 10 years, the company has achieved 20 percent sales growth.
The company plans to keep growing. Half of its growth will come from growing the markets of the products it now makes. The other half will come from new acquisitions, Boots said.
Among the challenges for the company today are the increased price of petroleum products, Boots said. That price deals the company a double whammy. Petroleum is used in the creation of plastic. It is also used in the creation of fuel to transport the products, Boots said.
To combat that price increase, the company has reduced the gauge of plastic in some products by 5 percent to 10 percent - a reduction that customers have accepted, Boots said.
Another challenge is price competition from the Far East, particularly China, which has erected tariffs to protect its plastics industry, Boots said.
"These are very difficult times for plastic companies inside North America," Boots said.
Competition also comes from aluminum and paper products. In this struggle, however, the consumer appears to be on the side of plastics, favoring those products over others, although paper products remain less expensive, Boots said.
Challenges notwithstanding, "Berry is very strong financially and enjoys a strong customer base and a skilled employee group," Boots said.
"We think we're still in our infancy where we can grow our company," Boots said.