with just three employees and now has grown to over 120 workers, producing more than two billion paper bags a year that are used by restaurants and fast food chains across the country.The demand for food-safe paper products has exploded over the past couple years, with more and more people using carry-out or delivery services during Covid-19. Which is why the machine that makes those paper bags with handles is practically running nonstop.
"More and more now, if you’re in food service and you're a restaurant, you have to be able to do takeout and delivery and these are the products that are going there," said Josh Fischer, president of Fischer Paper Products. "We have big plans to grow. There's a super need, not only for food service products, but for sustainable paper packaging. That's going to explode as people use less plastic," said Bill Fischer, director of business development.Fischer has been making one particular bag since it was founded - the doggie bag. Fischer purchased several machines from a St. Louis manufacturer 50-years-ago, and the doggie bag design came with the machine.
Antioch is 60 miles N of Chicago, near the Wisconsin border. It is NOT a 'Chicago suburb.'