The last half century Ivarson Inc has been instrumental in the modernization of the dairy and edible oil industry in North and South America. Founded by Len E. Ivarson in 1963, Ivarson Inc started as a manufacturers representative with a commitment to quality and to the customer. Today, this commitment has established the Ivarson name worldwide as an industry leader.

Over the past 50 years we have established strong relationships with several leading European manufacturers that share our commitment to quality and the customer. In 1963 we introduced Alpma cheese processing and packaging equipment from Germany. Working mainly with cheese companies in Wisconsin Ivarson Inc. installed multiple cheese processing and packaging lines for cheeses such as Camembert, Brie and Feta. Today we have installed cheese processing and packaging lines including Ivarson’s own 640 Block Cutter throughout the United States and Canada.

Keeping pace with technology and consumer demand for low fat products Ivarson Inc. introduced Alpma’s CreamoProt in 2008. This innovative technology converts liquid whey into a microparticulated milk protein. Benefits of this process allows producers to replace the more expensive milk portion of their products with whey as well as producing low-fat foods with the taste and texture of high-fat products.

In 1964 we partnered with Benhil supplying the North and South American markets with Butter and Margarine wrapping machines. With Benhil’s ability to handle soft butter direct from the churn we soon realized the key to a fully automatic plant was a butter pumping system. The first Ivarson butter pumping system was installed in 1965. This changed the industry as a whole as manufactures realized it was possible to fill and wrap the butter stick rather to form the butter stick which later had to be wrapped. Many butter manufacturers in United States and Canada soon saw the great labor savings as well as the sanitation benefits of this process. Within time the Ivarson butter pumping system soon became an industry standard and is used by almost all the butter plants where butter churning and packaging are involved. Today butter silos with capacities from 2 up to 6 ton are now configured with several butter pumps feeding multiple filling and wrapping machines.

Working closely with Benhil we developed a filling and packaging machine specific to the US market. The machine was specifically designed to fill and carton the standard ¼ pound butter stick, 4 to a carton we see in stores today. In 1965 we installed the first Benhil model 8360 filling machine combined with the Benhil 8555 cartoning machine at Union Center in Wisconsin. Forty plus years later this model is still in production producing the majority of butter consumed in the United States today.

With the Benhil soft butter wrapping machine we decided to branch out and developed our own line of equipment. The most successful design is the Ivarson soft case packer introduced in 1982 which could handle the soft product packages from the Benhil equipment. The addition of the case packers allowed us to offer our customers semi or fully automatic production lines. In addition to the case packer Ivarson Inc has also designed and manufacture its own bulk packer, cartoner and continuous carton close system.

Other key milestones related to the butter production include the introduction of Simon butter churns in 1972. This addition allowed us the opportunity to offer our customers a turnkey production line producing, filling and packaging butter. In 2002 we installed the first frozen butter Reworker from Rothenburg. This introduction changed the way frozen butter could be processed, reducing tempering time to packaging temperature while maintaining product quality. Following the Reworker in 2007, the WAL fully automatic bulk packaging line was introduced to the US market. Our latest introduction is the Ivarson Continuous Butter Churn built to be low maintenance and to meet strict sanitary standards.

In the margarine industry similar problems existed. The success of the Benhil equipment resulted in many installations for the margarine industry. We also introduced Gerstenberg to the United States installing several scraped surface heat exchangers for the production of margarine. Today Ivarson Inc. manufacturers its own line of scraped surface heat exchangers, B-Units and resting tubes as used by many companies to produce high quality margarine.

Today, under the leadership of Glenn Ivarson, Lennie’s son we look forward to the challenges and demands associated with being an industry leader. With the ongoing development of new machinery and our representation of leading European processing and packaging companies we look forward to providing our customers solutions with optimum results.