Company history: In 1970, Carl Dillman and his wife, Sue, began selling oven-baked apple butter to the former Colonial Room Restaurant in Brown County. Carl delivered the apple butter jars to the eatery while driving his milk route for Bloomington-based Johnson’s Creamery, where he worked for 37 years. As demand grew for the apple butter, the […]
History: Batesville Services traces its roots to 1884, when it was founded as the Batesville Coffin Co. in the small town of the same name. John A. Hillenbrand purchased the company in 1906 and renamed it Batesville Casket Co. It grew to become one of the largest producers of caskets, cremation products and memorial keepsakes […]
Company history: Engineer Leigh Sargent launched Zipp in 1988. At the time, he was working in motorsports, specializing in the modification, manufacturing and aerodynamic design of Indy 500 cars. He applied his knowledge about speed to bike wheels. Zipp’s first product was a disc wheel that was manufactured alongside auto-racing parts. In 1999, entrepreneur Andy […]
Company history: The mass production of noodles by Essenhaus Foods is an outgrowth of the traditional Amish-style food served by the popular Das Dutchman Essenhaus restaurant, founded in 1971 by Bob and Sue Miller in Middlebury. Through the years, the operation in northern Indiana’s Amish country has grown into a tourist destination that includes a […]
History: After several years of making salsa for family and friends, electrical engineer Charlie Ferguson and his wife, Glenda, in 2001 launched a commercial operation. In 2003, Ferguson took his salsa to the Fiery Food Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, and took home the top prize. Since then, he and his product have been featured on […]
History: In 1944, Edward Sieg and his wife, Agnes, planted and harvested their first 10 acres of popcorn on the family farm, then traversed Harrison County in southern Indiana to sell the raw product to stores. In 1960, the Siegs’ four sons—Wilfred, Donald, Eugene and Mark—inherited the business, Ramsey Popcorn Co. From there, they launched […]
History: Nearly 15 years ago—on Oct. 9, 2008—the first car, a black Honda Civic sedan, rolled off the assembly line at the Japanese automaker’s new plant in Greensburg. Since then, the plant has produced more than 2 million automobiles, many of them Civics, one of the all-time, best-selling cars in the world. When the plant […]
In 2018, the company debuted voice activated faucets that pair Amazon-, Alexa- and Google Assistant-enabled devices with Delta technology to create smart kitchen faucets.
History: Evansville-based Berry Global Inc. is a behemoth—it has some 46,000 global employees and 333 manufacturing facilities around the world that make everything from cosmetics packaging to medicine bottles to industrial shrink-wrap. But one of its most visible products is its thermoform drink cups found at many restaurant chains. During its 2022 fiscal year, the […]
History: In 1942, Grover C. Hutcherson and his daughter, Fran, decided to support the war effort by canning tomatoes for troops at home and abroad. They purchased and rebuilt an abandoned cannery building in Orestes that had been destroyed three times by fires and a tornado. With Orestes Canning off and running, the father and […]
History: Ted Weber worked at Delphi Electronics in Kokomo when he launched a hobby of making speakers for guitar amplifiers. Weber received positive feedback on his cone-shaped devices, and he transformed from hobbyist to professional when Weber Speakers debuted in 1997. In the early days, his son, T.A. Weber, assembled speakers in the family’s basement […]
Twin sisters Mandy Selke and Carly Swift created Just Pop In! in 2003, inspired by nostalgic evenings spent popping corn with their grandfather, Ed.Twin sisters Mandy Selke and Carly Swift created Just Pop In! in 2003, inspired by nostalgic evenings spent popping corn with their grandfather, Ed.
History: Cleaning powder Bar Keepers Friend was developed in Indianapolis in 1882 by chemist George William Hoffman after he observed his badly tarnished pot turn sparkling clean when he used it to cook rhubarb. Hoffman isolated oxalic acid in the vegetable as the key chemical and used it to formulate a cleaning powder that he […]
History: After noticing a high-priced but shabby leather tote bag in a mall in 2014, Christian Resiak was inspired to try making leather goods by hand in his unfinished basement. In 2015, with just $400 in his bank account, he quit his job at Angie’s List and decided to take Howl + Hide full time. […]
12 Flavor Gummi Bears is the best-selling product for Merrillville-based Albanese Confectionery and is sold in a variety of sizes, from 1 ounce snack packs to 5 pound bulk bags.
The company has made personalized cases for professional skateboarder Tony Hawk out of his old skateboard decks. Other customers include “Today” show weatherman Al Roker and Styx drummer Todd Sucherman.
Logansport-based Fiberglass Freaks specializes in building detailed replicas of the 1966 Batmobile, complete with a Batphone. The cars sell for $299,999.
