HFM Packaging Celebrates 40 Years in Business

Published: March 03, 2016

PEWAUKEE, WI | HFM Packaging, a minority-owned business founded by Harvey Martinez in 1976 to serve the flexible packaging industry, is celebrating 40 years with big plans for growth.

“Dad wanted to build a family-owned company to the point where growing up we had an old pouch machine in our garage. We never did use that pouch machine, but it represented his vision from the start,” says Paul Martinez, Harvey’s son and current president of HFM Packaging. Paul partnered with his father in 1987. After Harvey passed away suddenly from a heart attack two years later, Paul began to carry on his father’s legacy for customer service and bring Harvey’s dream to fruition—and then some.

Paul, along with his sister Lynn and her husband Jon Riggs, have established HFM Packaging as an industry leader in recloseable flexible packaging. Their 35,000-sq-ft manufacturing facility in Pewaukee and 20-person staff have developed packaging for healthcare, beauty, and personal-care markets as well as for industrial markets. Now they are working to expand market share in the food industry.

Martinez says pouches with a zipper closure or spout, as well as peel-and-reseal bags and trays, are in high demand as manufacturers look to improve shipping efficiency and minimize the environmental impact of packaging materials. Flexible packaging design and engineering are rapidly changing as consumers want convenience, extended shelf life, recloseability, and product ingenuity to fit on-the-go lifestyles.

The company recently introduced a recloseable solution to the food packaging space. This new application uses a peel-and-reseal label with an easy-open lift tab incorporated onto lidding material that is hermetically sealed to a tray. HFM invested in custom-designed and manufactured high-speed equipment to produce pre-converted rolls with up to four lanes across in order to match the requirements of the filling equipment where these products (such as deli meats) are packaged. Reportedly, the resulting packages can be opened and resealed, again and again, delivering reliable closure for freshness and convenience.

“We have the capabilities to provide pouches of every type, size, and volume for every industry,” says Martinez. “Packaging is the first line of defense to ensure product quality. We are serious about our promise to be on spec, on time, every time. Our customers know they can trust us to be the packaging materials experts so they can focus their expertise on the finished product.”

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