Headquarters: New Hope
Inception: 1918
Family name: Fiterman
What the company does: Manufacturer in the paper and packaging, custom plastics, building products, and furnishings businesses
Type of ownership: Closely held private corporation
Principal owners: Mike Fiterman family members
Number of employees: 2,000
Family members in the business: 3
Family members on the board: 4

Mike Fiterman was riding high 50 years ago. By age 28, he had earned a business degree from the University of Minnesota, married his high school sweetheart, started a family, and had a good job at a family business led by his father, Ben Fiterman.

In 1976, Ben went to California on vacation to celebrate the U.S. bicentennial. “He had a severe heart attack,” which sidelined him from running the business, Mike recalls. “All of a sudden, I was in charge.”

Mike met the business leadership challenge, even though he acknowledges that “it was daunting, to say the least.” He recalls this defining chapter in his life from the New Hope headquarters of Liberty Diversified International (LDI). At 78, he still goes to the office every day.

Now he’s the chairman of a company that employs about 2,000 people; operates packaging, paper, plastics, and office products businesses; and generated nearly $800 million in revenue in its most recent fiscal year. LDI employees work at 24 locations in nine U.S. states and in Mexico.

It’s a quantum leap from the company’s humble beginnings in 1918, when Mike’s Russian immigrant grandfather, Jack Fiterman, started a used box business. “He would collect bushel baskets and wooden crates at the grocery stores,” Mike says, repairing boxes and patching holes in burlap bags. “He’d take them out to the farmers and sell them again. We were in the early recycling business,” Mike says.

Jack traveled from farm to farm in a horse-drawn wagon. At the beginning of the 20th century, Mike says that jobs were scarce for immigrant Jews.

Mike’s grandfather named the company Liberty because he was patriotic and proud to be an American. “My dad went off to World War II,” Mike says. “He had been working in the business but was drafted into the Army. He fought in battles in Italy, got wounded, and received a Purple Heart.”

After returning home, Ben built the business. Liberty started manufacturing boxes in Minneapolis in the mid-1950s.

Over the decades, Liberty has continued to expand through organic growth as well as acquisitions.

In 1995, Liberty Paper was formed when the Fitermans opened a paper mill in Becker. “They made a very good strategic decision when they built the paper mill and became more of a fully integrated business,” says Russ Becker, CEO of APi Group. The paper the mill produces comes from recycled materials.

“I’m proud to say we’ve done about 10 acquisitions in the last 12 years.”

—Jack Fiterman, vice president of business development

For several years, Becker served on the LDI board. “They’re in the specialty box manufacturing business,” Becker says, and remaining in that niche has been a smart approach.

Mike’s son, Jack Fiterman, joined the company in 1995. Today he serves as vice president of business development.

“I’m proud to say we’ve done about 10 acquisitions in the last 12 years,” Jack says. “Companies of our size would rather sell to people like us, because we’ve got the same values. They believe that we’re going to take care of not only their customers, but also take much better care of their employees than some of the larger, publicly held companies in our space.”

When LDI makes an acquisition, “we try to do everything we can to leave the management in place,” Jack says. Mike and Jack expect Liberty will reach $1 billion in revenue within the next few years.

Jack’s siblings, Ann Miller and Debra Arbit, also are involved in LDI. Miller is the strategy excellence manager. Arbit serves on the Liberty board of directors.

There is an employee development plan for every Liberty employee, Miller says. She supports a “culture of development and growth,” which can take the form of “stretch assignments and mentorship.”

Family members frequently reference the company’s four core values: caring, innovation, trust, and excellence.

Jim Morgan, a non-family member, is LDI’s CEO. Fiterman family members are very intentional about ensuring their philosophy guides the company. The family council—Mike and Linda Fiterman, plus Jack, Ann, and Debra—meets monthly to support family relationships and discuss business. “It really starts with love every time,” Miller says.

Mike and Linda and their children, the fourth generation, want to ensure the fifth generation carries on the company’s legacy, as well as the family’s philanthropy.

“This is not just for us,” Mike says. He constantly asks: “How are we making our communities better? How are we making life better for our customers, our employees, our suppliers?” Miller agrees with her father. The family’s mission goes beyond a simple business proposition. The company’s purpose is “to make lives better,” she says—otherwise it would be “just another box company.”

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