June 10, 2026

This piece is sponsored by Dakota Business Finance.

If you buy honey, chances are it’s packaged in a bear-shaped bottle.

If you indulge in an alcohol beverage in flight, it’s likely served with a spirit in a mini bottle.

Or if you purchase a leading breakfast syrup or mustard from national retailers, certain cleaning supplies or any number of other everyday consumer goods, odds are you’ve inadvertently experienced a product with Sioux Falls roots.

“If you look at supermarket shelves, the way beverages and other liquids are packaged is different than it was years ago,” said Dennis Christopherson, founder and CEO of Sioux Falls-based Preform Solutions Inc.

Christopherson saw that future decades ago and bet on it in a big way. Twenty-five years ago, he left his job in the packaging industry to become a business owner.

“I saw the direction it was heading and knew that smaller volumes and custom preforms like we make would become harder and harder to source,” he said. “If you think about the market for bottled water and pop, it’s now mostly all in bottles made with PET preforms, so companies were putting capital into that grown area and become of that they were ignoring medium-market business.”

He built Preform Solutions into a custom polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, perform molding company. It provides high-quality packaging to the food and beverage, oil, pharmaceutical, automotive and cosmetics industries.

“Our objective was to start it in Minnesota, but I knew capital equipment was expensive. You don’t want to move it. I had a building we were leasing and I wanted to put a production line in there, and the city wouldn’t allow it.”

That’s when Dan Scott, former president and CEO of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, knocked on his door.

“People from South Dakota came up and said, ‘We’d really like to see you move here,’ And we had talked about moving to South Dakota. We wanted to get out the area,” Dennis’s wife, Kathy, said.

They began comparing the cost of doing business in other states, including Illinois and Iowa.

“My first objective was to do this in Illinois because of O’Hare (International Airport), but at the end of the day we had trucking and air service in South Dakota and those expenses weren’t that different. It came down to taxes and leasing the building,” Christopherson said. “That’s where South Dakota became the leased expensive state to operate in.”

They moved in 2001, and at first it was one man — Dennis — and one machine, which began making the preforms for a customer in Canada that produced the iconic bear-shaped honey bottle. Kathy helped on the bookkeeping side and with administrative needs.

In the last 25 years, Preform Solutions has evolved into the nation’s last independent manufacturer of PET preforms.

The Christophersons’ four sons — Jason, Dean, Sean and Neil — now work in the business full time, each specializing in a different area of the company.

“My boys were all married with families in Minnesota and I thought there’s no way they were going to come work for dad,” Christopherson said. “But we’re a close family, and all of a sudden one of the boys said he might have interest and after that it was a domino effect.”

The company runs 23 production lines with 110 different molds, and does mold changes daily to accommodate different customers.

“It’s a huge industry,” Christopherson said. “There’s always packaging being converted to PET preform and marketers are always looking for new ways to package and sell products. We pass on a lot more business than we pick up, because it has to be a good fit for what we do.”

Recently, the company became the first-ever winner of the new South Dakota Small Business Manufacturer of the Year from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Preform Solutions was nominated by Dakota Business Finance, which has partnered to support the company’s lending needs for years.

“They’re a fun group to work with — they’re really down to earth and they work hard,” president and CEO Lynne Keller Forbes said. “Imagine having four kids, a wife and giving up your job to do the American dream. That takes guts as an entrepreneur. We’ve toured with our board several times, and they’re always impressed by the magnitude of the operation here It’s really a hidden gem. They’re committed to this area and it’s just been fun to watch them grow.”

Dakota Business Finance, in partnership with Preform Solution’s lender, Cornerstone Bank, has helped the company navigate multiple SBA 504 loans, first to acquire their current location and then for major expansions in production capacity.

“When people think of a 504 loan, they think of buildings, which is a common use for them, but this equipment is expensive and it’s very impactful when you’re able to finance it this way,” Forbes said.

“They benefit from a 10 percent downpayment, and with multimillion-dollar upgrades, that’s real dollars. That’s working capital that’s now available to you for other uses, and typically we use the building or equipment as collateral, so we’re not tying up personal assets or anything else that could be prohibitive.”

For Preform Solutions, “it’s been very valuable,” Christopherson said. “The family pooled money together for the downpayment on this building and we were able to do a 504 on it.”

This is an especially good time for manufacturers to take advantage of the program, as the SBA began offering a fee waiver and reduced interest rates for manufacturing projects.

“The SBA is showing its commitment to this industry — including with its new award,” Forbes said. “This is a great time for manufacturers to begin having a conversation about 504 options, whether they’re expanding or potentially could benefit from refinancing.”

Preform Solutions already knows its current space won’t keep pace with growth for long.

“We have the demand,” Christopherson said. “This has been a great place to run this business, and I’m sure we’ll expand again in the future.”

To learn more about how your business could benefit, contact Dakota Business Finance through Erik Barnes, Jason Forbes or Sophie Johnson or start here.