For over 75 years, Badger Basket Company has been a premier manufacturer of baskets, bassinets, bassinet bedding, changing tables, high chairs, doll furniture, sandboxes, hampers, toy boxes, and storage furniture.
Badger Basket has been a part of many families for over 75 years, and we hope to be invited into your home, too. Our company began as a veneer factory that opened in 1911. Since then, it has evolved into a premier manufacturer of baby and juvenile products.
In 1912, the plant was sold to Eugene and Albert Erny. By 1918, the Ernys had changed the company’s name to the Edgar Basket and Manufacturing Company, and the company began manufacturing veneer-covered, woven baskets. This included small woven fish baskets, market baskets, and other related products. It was a successful enterprise, and a large woven basket was sent to the World’s Fair in Chicago during the 1930’s.
In 1939, the Ernys sold the company to Harry and Alvina Henrichs. They changed the name to the Henrichs Box Company. This might have been the end of the story, except that in 1944, Elenor and William Erny bought the company back. At this point, the company was renamed, becoming the Standard Container Company. Since the company still manufactured baskets as its primary business, the Ernys also used the name Badger Basket Company as a trade name. The Ernys continued to manufacture veneer woven baskets,woven clothes baskets and clothes hampers through the 1950s. They eventually added a line of woven picnic baskets.
In 1959, the plant building burned to the ground. Only a small brick section that housed the boiler and maintenance room survived the fire. The Ernys constructed a new one story building in early 1960 and production resumed. In 1966, the building was again hit by fire. This time, the fire burned the center part of the plant. Fortunately, the damage was minor and the plant went back in production within two weeks.
Today the business is still family-owned. The company has a large line of baskets, hampers, juvenile furniture, storage, and a full selection of doll furniture items.
