80 Years of Airlite: Built by the People, for the People
Eighty years ago today, a single machine hummed to life in a small shop in Omaha, Nebraska. The Air Light Products Company made fishing bobbers, one at a time, by hand. No one could have predicted that this modest beginning would eventually grow into one of North America’s most trusted packaging companies; operating six facilities, employing more than 1,500 people, and serving some of the most recognizable food and beverage brands in the country.
But here’s the thing about anniversaries like this one, they’re not really about the company. They’re about the people.
Eighty years is a long time. It spans generations of employees who dedicated careers to this place, of customers who trusted us to protect and present their most important products, and of communities that gave us roots when we needed them most. That’s the story worth telling.
Where It Started: A Family, a Vision, and Nebraska Grit
On June 24, 1946, the Lambach family launched what would become Airlite from a single facility in Omaha. In 1959, Fred and Rose Crosby used their life savings to purchase 50% of the company. And a year later, the other half. Fred saw the future clearly: plastics were coming, and food packaging was where the opportunity lived.
Fred and Rose weren’t just investors, they were partners in every sense. A team with strong vision and Nebraska roots who built something that would outlast them by decades. When their son Bob became President and CEO in 1969, he ran the company by a philosophy as direct as the Midwest itself: “Just work to be competitive and operate without having fancy, sophisticated overhead.” Simple, honest, focused on doing right by the people who counted on them. That ethos didn’t come from a values document. It came from the kind of people Fred and Rose raised.
Bob’s son Brad took the reins in 1996, the third generation of the Crosby family to lead Airlite, and has guided the company ever since with that same sense of purpose. We’re proud of our storied past, but our sights are set on the future.
To Our Customers: Thank You for Decades of Trust
There’s a reason we measure customer partnerships in decades.
At Airlite, we’ve never had layers of bureaucracy standing between a customer and the answer they need. We’re a family-owned company that cares about your product, your brand, and your ability to stand out on the shelf. That responsiveness isn’t a feature we added. It’s who we are.
For over 80 years, customers have trusted us with their most important packaging decisions: the containers that hold their flagship products, the designs that speak to their consumers, the structural innovations that protect and extend shelf life. We don’t take that trust lightly. We never have.
To every customer who has grown with us, challenged us to be better, and chosen to partner with Airlite for the long haul, this anniversary is yours too.
To Our Employees: You Are Airlite
More than 1,500 people across nine North American locations come to work every day and make this company what it is. They run the machines, design the molds, manage the logistics, answer the phones, and problem-solve in real time for customers who are counting on them.
Some of our employees represent second, and even third-generation Airlite families. That kind of loyalty isn’t bought. It’s earned through a culture that treats people with respect and gives them the opportunity to do meaningful work.
To everyone who has ever called Airlite their workplace: thank you. Eighty years of this company’s history is written in the work of your hands.
To Our Communities: We’re Grateful to be Planted Here
Airlite has been a part of Omaha for 80 years. This city shaped us. It gave us our values, directness, hard work, and genuine sense of duty to neighbors and community. And over the years, as we’ve grown into Pennsylvania, Texas, both coasts, further into the Midwest and into Canada, we’ve tried to carry those same values with us.
We believe, as Brad Crosby has said, that doing everything we can to constantly decrease our environmental footprint is our duty. We believe in ingenuity that benefits the greater good, not just the bottom line. That belief connects our commitment to sustainability with something deeper: a responsibility to the people and places that have given us so much.
What 80 Looks Like from Here
We’re proud of our storied past, but our sights are set on the future.
The packaging industry is changing faster than ever. Consumer expectations are rising and sustainability is no longer optional, it’s the standard. The brands that will win on the shelf tomorrow are the ones investing in thoughtful, inventive packaging today.
Airlite has never stood idle in our industry. We tend to lead, and let the rest follow. That posture hasn’t changed in 80 years, and it isn’t changing now. But what we hope never changes, what we will always work to protect, is the spirit that has carried us from a single bobber machine to where we stand today. The idea that a family-owned company with Nebraska roots and a stubborn commitment to doing right by the people around them, can build something that lasts.
