Pre-Pack Machinery (PPM) was founded in 1964 by W.J. “Bob” Scherer, in Bob’s garage, with parts made for him by a local machining and welding company. As the company grew he rented shop space, and then in 1970 he built and moved into PPM's present facility.

The first product designed and built by PPM was the “Bihl Packer”. This semi-automatic packing machine was developed by Bob and his father-in-law, William Bihl. Bihl operated large truck farms in Ohio, and was one of the first to market washed, ready-to-eat spinach in a bag. Although the fresh-cut produce industry was in its infancy, Bob quickly saw the potential for “fresh-cut”.

The Bihl Packer allowed processors to package 25 to 30 bags a minute instead of 5 or 6 bags a minute. As the fresh cut industry grew, so did PPM. The need for washing, drying, cutting and conveying existed, and by placing packing machines in various facilities, Pre-Pack had the opportunity to work with customers in plant layout, design, and fabrication of processing equipment to fit customers’ specific needs.

In 1970 PPM designed a lettuce cutter that then was 3 times faster than any other machine on the market. There was hope of it becoming Pre-Pack's 2nd “production” piece of equipment. The machine was never sold because of Bob’s fear of someone getting hurt from the machine. Bob also designed an automatic doughnut machine, but again, safety issues stopped the production of that machine.

In the mid 90’s fresh-cut fruit started to be processed by a few PPM customers that were also processing fresh-cut vegetables. Shortly thereafter, PPM was approached by several processors to develop a heavy-duty industrial peeler for melons. In February of 1999, PPM's first Automatic Melon Peeler was installed at Handi-Pak (later Fresh Del Monte Produce), the first of many.

PPM introduced the Automatic Melon Peeler at the 1999 IFPA Conference and Exhibition. Because some potential customers were skeptical of the new peeler, PPM confidently sent its new peelers out to the customers facility for free two-week testing and evaluation. The Peelers did such a great job each one of the Peelers was purchased at the end of the evaluation period

While their Automatic Melon Peelers have been a huge success, they were still not large enough for some melons, so PPM introduced their Automatic Watermelon Peeler in early 2002. The Automatic Watermelon Peelers will peel melons as tall as 16”, with diameters as large as 12”.

Today, PPM's peelers are in production throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, used for peeling the following:

• cantaloupe
  
• honey dew
  
• pineapple
  
• watermelon
  
• egg plant
  
• rutabaga
  
• jicama
  
• butternut squash
  
• pumpkins
  
• papaya
  
• mangos