What do the U.S. Postal Service, McDonalds and General Electric all have in common? They each use packaging made by a Sioux Falls-based company.
In this Made in South Dakota, we're talking about Bell Incorporated. The Sioux Falls company started as a local packaging manufacturer, selling to companies in this region only, but it has gone on to become competitive in a global market.
Bell Incorporated is a Sioux Falls business more than 80 years in the making. President and CEO Ben Graham says, "started out as a regional producer for folding cartons for the local bakeries, the local retail establishments." He says the Graham Family bought Bell in the 1970's and has since taken the packaging manufacturer global. You probably use a lot of their customer's products daily. Graham says some of them are, "the United States Postal Service, UPS, McDonalds, Wells Dairy here locally and General Electric."
Graham says Bell employs more than 300 people to make sure its customers get the packaging they need. He says his employees make Bell a well-oiled machine, saying, "folks come to work everyday excited about the opportunity, excited about working hard and they're extremely loyal and without them, we wouldn't be here."
One of those loyal employees is ron Sauers. He started here 22 years ago as, "a feeder on a sheet-fed press. It was an entry-level job."
Since then Ron's worked his way up to become the Director of Manufacturing. He says, "it's been very challenging and very rewarding."
Ron says one of the most rewarding aspects of working for Bell is how fast the manufacturer continues to grow, despite a sluggish economy. He says, "we've hired 70 to 90 people in the last 6 months."
Graham says one investment has really helped Bell weather the economic storm, "our investment in technology...reinvesting in productivity improvements to be able to help maintain our cost advantage against global companies."
And the company is not done growing yet. Ron says, "we have a very aggressive, strategic 5-year plan. We have the road map in front of us, we know what we need to do."
But Graham says that road map won't be leading Bell away from Sioux Falls. He says the city's position in South Dakota has it sitting in practically the center of the country. Graham also says the support from local and state governments is outstanding. He says, "we've got an incredible working environment here and a great cost of living for our folks," a working environment Graham says will take Bell still further in the future.
