Results for tilia

On this page:

Tilia Inc.

Type: Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Jarden Corp.
Address: 303 Second Street, North Tower, Floor 5, San Francisco, California 94107, U.S.A.
Telephone: (415) 371-7200
Toll Free: 800-777-5452
Fax: (415) 896-6469
Employees: 150
Sales: $184 million (2001)
Incorporated: 1990
NAIC: 333319 Other Commercial and Service Industry Machinery Manufacturing

Tilia Inc. is a manufacturer and distributor of vacuum packaging systems used to store food. Tilia's kitchen appliances are sold under the names FoodSaver and FreshSaver. The company also sells a variety of accessory products intended for use with its vacuum packaging systems, including bags, canisters, and jar sealers. Tilia's products are sold in warehouse retail outlets, discount stores, grocery stores, through a company-operated Web site, and through infomercial programs aired on television. Acquired by Jarden Corp. in 2002, Tilia also markets its products overseas through partnership agreements.

Tilia began with an innovation, a vacuum packaging system developed by a German inventor named Hanns Kristen. Kristen's experimentations were driven by his belief that the vacuum systems in existence fell short of being true to their name. He surveyed the products on the market in the mid-1980s and discovered that most of the vacuum systems available sealed bags without first removing all the air from the bags. In 1987, Kristen succeeded in developing what would become known as the "FoodSaver," a product with impressive capabilities whose success was stalled by the absence of effective marketing support.

The advantages afforded to the consumer by the FoodSaver family of products were enticing, but relatively few consumers were aware of the novel product until years after Kristen's pioneering work. It took roughly a decade before FoodSaver was able to shed its anonymity and draw the attention of U.S. consumers. The person responsible for igniting the interest in Kirsten's invention joined Tilia about three years after the introduction of the FoodSaver on the market. In 1993, Linda Graebner was named president and chief executive officer of Tilia, the parent company of Nationwide Marketing, which was directly involved with marketing the unique vacuum packaging system developed by Kristen.

Graebner was responsible for broadcasting the merits of the FoodSaver to consumers in the United States. She joined Tilia after vacating her post as vice-president of marketing for the Dole Food Company. At the time of her arrival, Nationwide Marketing sold three different models of the FoodSaver: the FoodSaver II, the FoodSaver Professional, and the Food Saver Compact. Although there were features that distinguished each model, all three included two-way cutting blades, jar-sealing attachments, and instructional videos. Additionally, the company marketed the VacuSave Commercial Vacuum Packaging System, which was designed for food sealing and storage for institutional users. Aside from equipment, Tilia, through Nationwide Marketing, offered a variety of accessories that included the company's patented VacLoc bags, canisters, and jar sealers.

The company and the products Graebner took charge of in 1993 possessed qualities that were sufficient, in retrospect, to attract customers. The FoodSaver family of counter-top products employed powerful piston pumps to remove air from Tilia's VacLoc bags, enabling food to remain fresh three to five times longer than if the food were refrigerated in a conventional manner. The reusable bags, which were boilable, microwaveable, and washable, featured a nylon layer that provided a complete oxygen, moisture, and odor barrier. As opposed to canning, vacuum packing did not sterilize food, thereby making it shelf-stable, but by removing air, vacuum packaging dramatically slowed the deterioration of food caused by air. For the consumer, vacuum packaging promised a savings of time and money, enabling users to buy in bulk quantities and retain freshness far longer than traditional food storage methods offered.

Graebner realized the strengths of Tilia's vacuum packaging system when she took the helm in 1993. Shortly after her appointment, she agreed to an interview with HFD--The Weekly Home Furnishings Newspaper that revealed her thoughts about her new company. In the June 14, 1993 interview, she said: "With my background, clearly my arrival is a commitment to build the business and to increase our marketing efforts. I have quite a bit of advertising experience through doing a lot of television commercials at Dole. My view of this opportunity is that FoodSaver is clearly the premier product in this category, and we want to create more awareness about its superiority. Our machine is patented and the only true vacuum saving product and we want to create some more awareness about it."

Graebner realized the importance of delineating the strengths of the Food Saver family of products from the beginning of her tenure at Tilia. It would take several years, however, before she could broadcast the marketable qualities of a genuine vacuum packaging system to the public to an extent that could foster significant sales growth. A private company backed by venture capital, Tilia lacked the financial resources to deliver an effective, broadly based message to the public. In time, once the financial resources were available, Graebner's vision was manifested in an effective marketing campaign that vaulted FoodSaver onto the national stage, thereby delivering exponential sales growth to Tilia.

Tilia generated less than $10 million in annual sales when Graebner assumed responsibility for spearheading FoodSaver's marketing campaign. The company's revenue volume did not increase substantially in the years immediately following Graebner's arrival, but the momentum toward greater growth began to build not long after she joined the company. Historically, Tilia had garnered the bulk of its sales from distributing FoodSaver models to club stores, the membership discount stores frequented by consumers who preferred to buy in bulk quantities. To a lesser extent, the company advertised FoodSaver on cable television shopping channels. The breadth of distribution began to widen in 1995, however, when a new vice-president of sales, Jim Schnabel, joined Tilia. The team of Graebner and Schnabel began to plan for FoodSaver's introduction into department stores. For the most expensive models of the company's vacuum packaging system, retail prices were reduced from $300 to $230. The financial goal, as articulated by Schnabel in 1995, was to increase sales 15 percent for the year and between 15 percent and 20 percent for 1996.

Despite the efforts to broaden distribution, annual sales did not increase with the percentage gains that later confirmed FoodSaver's maturation into a product of national recognition. The foray into department stores failed to capture the interest of consumers. FoodSaver was a product whose novelty proved to be its own undoing. "It is a product that doesn't sell itself," Graebner explained in an October 11, 1999 interview with HFN--The Weekly Newspaper for the Home Furnishing Network. "It needs description and education," she added. Patrons of department stores looked at the FoodSaver and, presumably, were confronted by a product whose value they little understood. A different way of effectively delivering the value of FoodSaver needed to be found to unlock the potential of vacuum packaging to the public. Toward the end of her fifth year in charge of Tilia, Graebner found the ideal way to relate FoodSaver's worth.

During the late 1990s, no better format existed to describe and to demonstrate the capabilities of a product to a mass audience than an infomercial. Tilia aired its first infomercial in December 1998, a program that featured the FoodSaver Compact II, one of three models offered by the company. At the time of the infomercial's debut, Tilia was ending a year during which it collected $18.5 million in sales. From this point forward, the company began to record robust financial growth, as it at last found a way to preach to potential customers. During the first six months of 1999, Tilia sold more FoodSaver vacuum packaging systems than it did during the previous year. The broadcast of the infomercial was part of an aggressive marketing campaign unleashed in 1999, an advertising program that also included marketing FoodSaver through print catalogs and through traditional retail advertising methods. Infomercials were the deciding factor in the ascendance of FoodSaver, however, injecting Tilia's signature product line with unprecedented vitality. The effectiveness of the company's infomercials also had a beneficial effect on the retail success of the FoodSaver line. "It [the infomercial] is clearly driving retail business," Graebner explained in her October 11, 1999 interview with HFN-The Weekly Newspaper for the Home Furnishing Network. "Because when you promote it on television," she added, "the subsequent retail business is strong. Consumers are seeing the infomercial and walking into their retailer and purchasing the product."

Fueled by the aggressive marketing campaign, Tilia's revenue volume swelled dramatically as the company ended its first decade of existence. Sales increased from less than $20 million in 1998 to more than $80 million in 1999. By 2000, when infomercials accounted for one-quarter of the company's sales, the effect of the marketing campaign on Tilia's retail business was evident, its growth sparked by the increased awareness of FoodSaver. Between 1998 and 2000, the company's retail distribution quadrupled, confirming Graebner's belief that the infomercials would not only add another source of revenue but also spur growth in Tilia's retail sales. "We had the products, but the biggest challenges for us was educating consumers," Graebner explained in an October 27, 2000 interview with San Francisco Business Times. "The cable shows created a wide audience and brought us new accounts such as Wal-Mart and Kmart."

While in the midst of watching the company expand at a rapid pace, Graebner began to pay increasing attention to Tilia's presence overseas. At the end of 2001, when the company recorded $184 million in sales, Tilia signed an agreement with Sanyo to help bring FoodSaver to the Japanese market. The agreement, which gave responsibility to Sanyo for the distribution and marketing of the vacuum packaging appliance in Japan, was not the first international partnership Tilia forged but it was the most important overseas deal the company made. In an interview with HFN-The Weekly Newspaper for the Home Furnishing Network, Graebner marked the occasion by articulating her commitment to the further development of Tilia's international business. "A big part of our message," she said, "is we're continuing to look for strong partners to broaden our base, and we really want them to be partners, not just distributors. Right now we're really focusing on international growth and looking for potential candidates."

Graebner's efforts to orchestrate Tilia's international expansion soon were overshadowed by events on the company's domestic front. During the spring of 2002, merger negotiations were underway that would lead Graebner to forsake Tilia's independence for the benefits of joining another company. The discussions sprang from a relationship with Alltrista Corp., the dominant player in the home-canning business. Tilia had used Alltrista's Ball brand of jars to demonstrate the advantages of using FoodSaver's vacuum packing system in home canning, which led the two companies to entertain the idea of merging their operations. The central figure leading the negotiations was Alltrista's chief executive officer, Martin Franklin, who assumed control over the company in September 2001 and immediately began to make sweeping changes at the company. Franklin moved the company's headquarters to Rye, New York, trimmed its involvement in the industrial market, and focused Alltrista's effort on the consumer market. In a March 29, 2002 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Franklin explained his reasoning behind the interest in Tilia. "We looked at the home preservation industry," he said, "and really the market leader that's carved out an entire sector on their own is Tilia."

There were benefits for each company in the corporate union. Franklin expected the acquisition of Tilia to immediately increase Alltrista's earnings and double the size of its consumer business. For Tilia, there were several advantages to be gained by being absorbed by Alltrista, which possessed a much bigger distribution network than Tilia's. Alltrista's distribution network included a strong presence in grocery store chains, an area of the retail sector where Tilia enjoyed little exposure. Furthermore, the deal promised to give Tilia greater access to capital. Alltrista agreed to pay $145 million for Tilia and assume responsibility for $15 million of Tilia's debt, as well as to award Tilia as much as $25 million in cash or stock during the ensuing three years provided certain profit requirements were met. The merger, which combined Tilia's $184 million in sales with Alltrista's $241 million in sales, was completed in April 2002. "This is the marriage of a sales- and marketing-strong company [Tilia] with a manufacturing- and distribution-strong company [Alltrista]," Franklin remarked in an April 8, 2002 interview with HFN-The Weekly Newspaper for the Home Furnishing Network.

Several weeks after the merger was completed, Alltrista changed its name to Jarden Corp., a change in identity meant to signal the company's emphasis on the consumer market. Under the control of Jarden, Tilia retained much of its independence, operating as separately managed subsidiary within a decentralized organizational structure. Graebner kept her titles as the company's leader, presiding over a new era of Tilia's existence.

As Tilia moved forward, the company was expected to benefit from the support of Jarden. One significant change to Tilia's operations that occurred under Jarden's control was the company's partnership with a leader in the food preparation market. In late 2003, Jarden acquired VillaWare Manufacturing, a maker of small electric kitchen appliances, cookware, and kitchen tools such as waffle makers and panini grills. Jarden combined VillaWare's and Tilia's marketing and operations functions, although the two companies' sales forces remained independent of each other. In the years ahead, as Tilia attempted to capitalize on the spreading awareness of its product, the exploitation of Jarden's distribution network promised to deliver robust growth. At the time of its acquisition by Jarden, Tilia had reached only 3.5 percent of the nation's households, a percentage figure that Graebner hoped to significantly increase in the future.

Principal Subsidiaries

Tilia Direct, Inc.

Principal Competitors

American Household, Inc.; Conair Corporation; Newell Rubbermaid Inc.

Species

Tilia americana Basswood or American Linden
Tilia amurensis Amur Lime or Amur Linden
Tilia begoniifolia
Tilia caroliniana Carolina Basswood
Tilia chinensis
Tilia chingiana
Tilia cordata Small-leaved Lime or Little-leaf Linden
Tilia mongolica Mongolian Lime or Mongolian Linden
Tilia dasystyla
Tilia europaea European Lime
Tilia henryana Henry's Lime or Henry's Linden
Tilia heterophylla White Basswood
Tilia hupehensis Hubei Lime
Tilia insularis
Tilia intonsa
Tilia japonica Japanese Lime
Tilia kiusiana
Tilia mandshurica Manchurian Lime
Tilia maximowicziana
Tilia mexicana
Tilia miqueliana
Tilia mongolica Mongolian Lime or Mongolian Linden
Tilia nobilis
Tilia occidentalis - West lime
Tilia oliveri Oliver's Lime
Tilia paucicostata
Tilia platyphyllos Large-leaved Lime
Tilia rubra - Kafkas lime
Tilia tomentosa Silver Lime or Silver Linden
Tilia tuan

Hybrids and cultivars

Leaves and trunk of common lime (Tilia x europaea)

Tilia × euchlora (T. dasystyla × T. platyphyllos)
Tilia × vulgaris Common Lime (T. cordata × T. platyphyllos; syn. T. × europaea)
Tilia × petiolaris (T. tomentosa × T. ?)
Tilia 'Flavescens' (T. americana × T. cordata)
Tilia 'Moltkei' (hybrid, unknown origin)
Tilia 'Orbicularis' (hybrid, unknown origin)
Tilia 'Spectabilis' (hybrid, unknown origin)

Description

The Linden's sturdy trunk stands like a pillar and the branches divide and subdivide into numerous ramifications on which the spray is small and thick. In summer this is profusely clothed with large leaves and the result is a dense head of abundant foliage.^[1]

The leaves of all the lindens are one-sided, always heart-shaped, and the tiny fruit, looking like peas, always hangs attached to a curious, ribbon-like, greenish yellow bract, whose use seems to be to launch the ripened seed-clusters just a little beyond the parent tree. The flowers of the European and American lindens are similar, except that the American bears a petal-like scale among its stamens and the European varieties are destitute of these appendages. All of the lindens may be propagated by cuttings and grafting as well as by seed. They grow rapidly in a rich soil, but are subject to the attacks of many insect enemies.^[1]

Uses

The Linden is to be recommended as an ornamental tree when a mass of foliage or a deep shade is desired.^[1] The tree produces fragrant and nectar-producing flowers, the medicinal herb lime blossom. They are very important honey plants for beekeepers, producing a very pale but richly flavoured monofloral honey. The flowers are also used for herbal tea, and this infusion is particularly popular in Europe.

T. cordata is the preferred species for medical use, having a high concentration of active compounds. It is said to be a nervine, used by herbalists in treating restlessness, hysteria, and headaches. Usually, the double-flowered lindens are used to make perfumes. The leaf buds and young leaves are also edible raw. Tilia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species - see List of Lepidoptera which feed on Tilia.

The timber of lime trees is soft and easily worked, so it is a popular wood for carving. The wood is often used for model building and intricate carving, and for making electric guitar bodies. Other musical instrument uses include its use for wind instruments such as recorders. It is also the wood of choice for the window-blinds and shutters industries. Real wood blinds are often made from this lightweight but strong and stable wood which is well suited to natural and stained finishes.

It is known in the trade as basswood, particularly in North America. This name originates from the inner fibrous bark of the tree, known as bast (Old English language). A very strong fibre was obtained from this, by peeling off the bark and soaking in water for a month; after which the inner fibres can be easily separated. Bast obtained from the inside of the bark of the lime tree has been used by the Ainu people of Japan to weave their traditional clothing, the attus.

In the percussion industry, basswood is sometimes used as a material for drum shells, both to enhance their sound and their esthetics. Mapex VX, Sonor Force 507, Pearl Vision, Tama Superstar, and Ludwig Accent drums all contain basswood plies.

Basswood is also frequently used as a material for electric guitar bodies. In the past, it was typically used (along with agathis) for favoured for less-expensive models. However, due to its better resonance at mid and high frequency, and better sustain than alder, it is now more commonly in uses with all kinds of superstrats, such as Ibanez RG, Ibanez JEM, and even Jackson Soloist, among other superstrats.

History

In Europe, Lime trees are known to have reached ages measured in centuries. In the courtyard of the Imperial Castle at Nuremberg is a lime which tradition says was planted by the Empress Cunigunde, the wife of Henry II of Germany. This would make the tree about nine hundred years old (when it was described in ). It looks ancient and infirm, but in 1900 was sending forth thrifty leaves on its two or three remaining branches and was of course cared for tenderly. The famous Lime of Neustadt on the Kocher in Würtemberg was computed to be one thousand years old when it fell.^[1]. The Alte Linde tree of Naters, Switzerland, is already mentioned in a document in 1357 and described by the writer at that time as already "magnam" (huge). A plaque at its foot mentions that in 1155 a Lime tree was already on this spot.

The excellence of the honey of far-famed Hybla was due to the lime trees that covered its sides and crowned its summit.
The name of Linnaeus, the great botanist, was derived from a lime tree.
Tilia appears in the tertiary formations of Grinnel Land in 82° north latitude, and in Spitsbergen. Sapporta believed that he found there the common ancestor of the limes of Europe and America.^[1]

Cultural significance

The lime tree is a national emblem of Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic,^{[citation needed]} where it is called lipa (in Slovak, Polish, and Slovenian) and lípa (in Czech). The tree also has cultural and spiritual significance in Hungary, where it is called hars(fa).The Croatian currency, kuna, consists of 100 lipa, also meaning "linden". The lime tree is also the tree of legend of the Slavs. In the Slavic Orthodox Christian world, limewood was the preferred wood for panel icon painting. The famous icons by the hand of Andrei Rublev, including the Holy Trinity (Hospitality of Abraham), and The Savior, now in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, are painted on limewood. Limewood was chosen for its ability to be sanded very smooth, and for its resistance to warping once seasoned.

The national poet of Romania, Mihai Eminescu, was known to receive poetic inspiration from a linden tree in the Copou Gardens under which he would compose.

The most famous street in Berlin, Germany is called Unter den Linden or Under the lindens, named after the linden trees lining the boulevard. In German folklore, the linden tree is the "tree of lovers."

Germanic mythology

Further information: Gerichtslinde

The tilia was also a highly symbolic and hallowed tree in Germanic mythology. In Germany e.g., there are over 850 place names that can be traced back to it:^{[citation needed]} For pre-Christian Germans it was an object of worship since the lime-tree was associated with Freyja, the guardian of life and goddess of fortune, love and truth. Therefore her tree was considered a tree of peace and it often formed the central meeting place of many villages and rural communities. Furthermore, legend has it that it cannot be struck by lightning since Freya is the wife of Thor, a major god of the Germanic pantheon.^{[citation needed]} Consequently, it was assumed that the lime-tree possessed some protective power against evil and catastrophe, and even after the Christianization of Germany the lime-tree’s positive connotation continued: Motherly Freya was subsequently replaced by the Mother of God, so that many trees were rededicated to St. Mary (Marienlinde). Accordingly, limewood was used as a superstitious precaution against witchcraft or Satan and the tree kept its prominent role as a benign guardian of the village.

Originally, local communities not only assembled to celebrate and dance under the lime-tree and the aegis of Freya, but also to hold their judicial thing meetings there in order to restore justice and peace. It was believed that the tree would help unearth the truth and that no one was able to lie maliciously without attracting Freya’s rage. Thus the tree became associated with jurisprudence even after Christianization and verdicts in rural Germany were frequently returned sub tilia (under the lime-tree) until the Age of Enlightenment.

Greek mythology

Homer, Horace, Virgil, and Pliny mention the lime-tree and mention its virtues. As Ovid tells the old story of Baucis and Philemon, she was changed into a linden and he into an oak when the time came for them both to die.

Herodotus says:

The Scythian diviners take also the leaf of the lime-tree, which, dividing into three parts, they twine round their fingers; they then unbind it and exercise the art to which they pretend.

^[1]

Romantic symbol

As Freya was also the goddess of love her tree was always considered a romantic symbol, even to the present day. For instance, a very famous mediaeval love poem by Walther von der Vogelweide (c.1170-c.1230) starts with a reference to the lime-tree:

Under der linden

an der heide,

dâ unser zweier bette was,

dâ mugt ir vinden

schône beide

gebrochen bluomen unde gras.

vor dem wald in einem tal,

tandaradei,

schône sanc diu nahtegal.

Under the lime tree

on the open field,

where we two had our bed,

you still can see

lovely both

broken flowers and grass.

On the edge of the woods in a vale,

tandaradei,

sweetly sang the nightingale.

Linden-trees play a significant motif in a number of poems written by the most famous Romanian romantic poet Mihai Eminescu. An excerpt from his poem Mai am un singur dor (One Wish Alone Have I):

Pătrunză talanga

Al serii rece vânt,

Deasupră-mi teiul sfânt

Să-şi scuture creanga.

While softly rings

The evening's cool wind

Above me the holy lime

Shakes its branch. (translation: M.G.Jiva)

Romantic symbols in music

The trees have also become more famous from O-Zone's Dragostea Din Tei (Love From Linden Trees).

Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma nu ma iei, nu ma nu ma iei, nu ma nu ma nu ma iei. Chipul tau si Dragostea din tei mi-amintesc de ochii tai.

You want to leave, but you can't, you can't take me, you can't, you can't take me, you can't, you can't, you can't take me. The image of your face and the love from linden trees remind me of your eyes.

Other Literary References

The lime tree is an important symbol in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison," (written 1797; first published 1800).

The linden tree is featured as a symbol of supernatural dread in, Hannah Crafts, The Bondwoman's Narrative.

A poem from Wilhelm Müller's cycle of poems, Winterreise, is called "Der Lindenbaum." The cycle was later set to music by Franz Schubert.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Keeler, Harriet L. (1900). Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. New York: Charles Scriber's Sons, 24-31.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Donate to Wikimedia

Shopping: tilia

Tilia V375	Tilia Foodsaver Refill Bags

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "tilia" at WikiAnswers.

Copyrights:

		Company History. International Directory of Company Histories. Copyright © 2006 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Gardener's Dictionary. Taylor's Dictionary for Gardeners, by Frances Tenenbaum. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tilia". Read more

Search for answers directly from your browser with the FREE Answers.com Toolbar!
Click here to download now.

Get Answers your way! Check out all our free tools and products.

On this page: Print Link