25 Years and Still Growing

Since 1985, FCA has grown from a single manufacturing site to over thirteen plant locations across the United States, providing custom industrial packaging to many of the nation’s leading OEMs.  There are many factors that have contributed to this phenomenal growth and success, yet I believe it is worth highlighting two things that have really set FCA apart from the pack, resulting in our company emerging as the national leader in custom designed industrial packaging solutions. For over twenty-five years FCA has had an unwavering commitment to two things: product re-design and the sourcing of alternative raw materials. These two objectives go hand in hand, and to help carry out this strategy FCA maintains close working relationships between our sales, design and sourcing teams.

Most packaging companies are simply content with taking the customers’ existing designs and building them with traditional lumber and nails. Not so at FCA. Our in-house design and engineering staff immediately gets to work at redesigning existing packaging with the view to increase performance and reduce cost.  At the same time, our purchasing department gets to work at finding the most cost effective raw material with which to build.  Gone are the days when raw material was just locally sawn hardwood or softwood, or whatever excess material the local lumber yard had lying around. FCA scours the continent, indeed the world, to identify and locate materials. 

Not too long ago, our company opened a brand-new design and testing facility in Coal Valley, IL. Not only are we designing, modeling and testing prototypes there, we are also continually testing new, alternative and innovative raw materials.  We now make our containers and shipping platforms from such diverse materials as steel, plastic decking, corrugated, engineered wood, OSB, MDF, and plywood, as well as traditional hardwood and softwood lumber, among others.  Our commitment to re-design and alternative materials has recently resulted in FCA developing a patent-pending “hybrid” product constructed from engineered wood components and steel bracketry. This hybrid product can be used as many as 30-50 times and is generally 50% more cost competitive than steel packaging.  

Whether in wood, steel, corrugated, or hybrid, our commitment to product re-design and alternative sourcing sets us apart from our competitors, and helps provide a comprehensive packaging solution that adds value to our customers.