History

The ViskoTeepak story began in 1952 with Gunnar Eriksson enjoying a smorgasbord on a ferry between the Åland Islands and Stockholm. On that trip, Mr. Eriksson noticed on his plate a piece of sausage in an artificial casing. Einar Söderman, Mr. Eriksson’s friend who was also on the trip, had been working with a casing producer in Sweden and knew that what they were looking at was cellophane casing made from cellulose. Gunnar Eriksson became so interested that he took a piece of the casing with him to a laboratory in Helsinki. Thus the story of the greatest casing company began.

More Than 60 Years of History

To make a long story short, Gunnar Eriksson was able to raise money to start the Visko Company, and Olov Barck was successful in his analysis of the casing. The Visko casing company was established in 1952, and production was planned to begin in an old butter factory in Hanko, which had been empty since the war.

On January 8, 1953, it was declared in a local Hanko newspaper that the Visko casing company would commence production during the summer with 30 employees, with Gunnar Eriksson as president and Olov Barck as the local manager and technical leader. Production in the plant increased rapidly, and by 1956, it was moved to a newly built facility at the same location as the current plant, just outside the city of Hanko.

From its founding until 1962, all casing produced was of cellophane. In the early years, there were many innovations and changes made to the original process, and many issues had to be resolved before Visko was able to commence the commercial manufacture and sale of fibrous casings in 1962. It didn’t take long to see that fibrous casings were the future, and by the spring of 1965 the plant was expanded to 27,000 square meters.

Gunnar Eriksson, Visko

1950

Gunnar Eriksson was enjoying a famous Scandinavian smorgasbord on a ferry boat in between Finland and the Åland Islands. While enjoying a tasteful sausage, he noticed the casing was made artificially which caught his interest. He got so curious he put a piece of the casing into his pocket and had it analyzed in a laboratory. 

1952

Gunnar became convinced artificial casing was the future. He wanted to take part in this industry and raised some money to start the Visko Company in Hanko, Finland. Visko started to manufacture cellophane casings with just 30 employees.

ViskoTeeapk | History fibrous

1962

Visko started to manufacture fibrous casings.

ViskoTeepak Delfzijl plant

1965 

The converting center in Delfzijl, Netherlands opened.

ViskoTeepak Lommel Plant

1975

The cellulose and fibrous manufacturing plant in Lommel, Belgium was established.

ViskoTeepak Brno Plant

1994

The cellulose converting center in the Czech Republic opened.

Nova Casings

1995

Production of Nova plastic casing started.

2007

The current owners of ViskoTeepak believed in the future of the industry and were willing to create a world-leading seller, producer, and supplier of artificial casings. By merging Visko and Teepak into one, a new era began!

ViskoTeepak Hamburg office

2011

The sales and logistics center in Hamburg, Germany was acquired.

ViskoTeepak Kenosha Plant

2014

The fibrous converting center in Kenosha, USA merged with ViskoTeepak.

ViskoTeepak Poznan

2020

The fibrous converting center in Poznan, Poland was acquired.

Today

ViskoTeepak is #MakingFoodMoreAccessible by tailor-making productive solutions in close collaboration with the global food chain.

A further look into history

 

Historic product innovations

ViskoTeepak | History jumbo

Jumbo casing

Visko: jumbo casing
ViskoTeeapk | History fibrous

The world's best fibrous casing

Visko: the world's best fibrous casing.