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Irvine Manufacturer Dominates Its Packaging Niche
You don't need to tell Robert Scholle that he's working in an unglamorous industry.
He already knows it.
"People ask me what I do," Scholle said.
"'I make plastic bags,' I say. The conversation usually ends there."
Scholle (pronounced SHO-lee) is the manager of technology at Irvine-based Scholle Corporation, a privately held international packaging company that his father, William R. Scholle, started 51 years ago in Northlake, Ill., near Chicago. The Irvine facility, which also includes the firm's research and development center, employs 70. Scholle has 2,000 employees in seven countries, plus a network of brokers in another 28 countries. Estimated annual revenue is $100 million to $500 million (the company will not release results).
Although the bag business may sound humdrum, it's anything but lowtech. Scholle produces more than 200 million bags a year through processes that have earned the corporation 60 patents and introduced safer, cheaper packaging to the chemical, food and beverage industries.
William R. Scholle died last year at 81, but the firm is still very much a family affair, with his son William J. Scholle, 51, having taken over as president and CEO in addition to 41-year-old Robert Scholle's role in the research department.
Bags for Battery Acid
A 1938 chemical engineering graduate of Purdue University, the elder Scholle started the company in 1947. The original business was in chemicals-tile adherents and battery electrolyte. At the time, batteries did not come with the electrolyte (acid) pre-packaged,...