For those who see opportunity in adversity, a crisis can spur innovation. Kruger Family Industries (KFI), the largest heavy-gauge industrial thermoformer in North America, has a 45-year history through its two Portage, Wisconsin-based brands – TriEnda and Penda. Purchased in 2014, TriEnda produces pallets, dunnage, and material handling materials. Penda, purchased in 2016, focuses on truck bed liners and other automotive components. Located only about 1.5 miles apart, and with two factories in Mexico, there are about 1,000 employees and 1 million sq. ft. of manufacturing space housing 39 thermoforming machines, each with a forming area of 64ft2. So, when the automotive manufacturing plants announced they’d be shutting down indefinitely in March 2020, a lot was at risk.
