About W. H. Leary

For more than 90 years, W. H. Leary Company has made a commitment to engineering and manufacturing quality assurance, glue application, and mechanical solutions for the paperboard packaging industry. Our expertise in integration comes from a comprehensive understanding of sensors, controls, micro-processing, machining, and high-speed multi-tasking systems. Corporately located in Chicago, IL, Leary solutions are distributed and supported worldwide.

We Are W. H. Leary Company

Dedicated Leader in Packaging

Packaging automation demands are increasing, which makes it necessary to rely on innovative and dependable equipment. Whether your business is part of the converting or fulfillment industry, W. H. Leary has a solution that will enable you to deliver a “100% fit-for-use” product to your customer.

More About W. H. Leary

Corporate Vision

To be recognized as a model of excellence, committed to leading a world class organization that provides innovative technologies, products, solutions and services to a global packaging market.

Mission Statement

The Leary Group believes that all business transactions must be based on honesty and integrity. We will provide the best products and services through people who are dedicated to exceeding our customers’ expectations. By focusing on our customers’ needs, we will capture more markets, out perform our competition and establish a work place for all employees that is profitable, healthy and beneficial to everyone.

Global Alliances

Today’s competitive packaging market has made it more important to find vendors that can fully service all of your packaging needs. It is our purpose to not only meet these desires, but to surpass your expectations. For this reason we have developed strategic global alliances to better serve and support our global customers.

Our History

W. H. Leary Company, a third-generation family-owned organization, is headquartered outside of Chicago, IL, USA. Engineering glue application, quality assurance, and data collection solutions for the paperboard packaging industry, Leary offers a wide range of solutions to meet customer demands today and in the future.

The Beginning

Leary’s beginning and true thumbprint in the folding carton industry can be traced back to their first detection solution to the industry in 1985 in response to a local carton manufacturing plant’s problem with sending their customers mixed cartons. With extensive background in sensor capabilities, electronics and monitoring, Leary presented their first barcode detection solution to Container Corporation of America in Carol Stream, IL (now Graphic Packaging International).

The solution was successful and quickly expanded to include a controller that monitored for multiple detection options including glue, cello, flaps and more. This solution began to solve other mixed copy and carton quality issues for other folding carton plants. This surge in demand led Leary to begin primarily servicing the folding carton industry, making products, services and technologies to support the goal of delivering 100% Fit-for-Use cartons. Quickly after the solution began to grow in the U.S., Leary engineered automatic glue line correction software and reject tracking that continue to be the foundation of controller analytics.

The growth of the company has always been based on advancing technology for the folding carton industry, partnering with each plant to offer exceptional customer service and support to their customers. “Our customers not only demand quality but your customers do as well,” has been the basis for delivering throughput-increasing solutions. This has led to Leary to gain a strong market share offering a preferred solution for U.S. multi-national packaging companies and independent carton plants.

Demonstration and Training Center

Leary’s 10,000 square foot Demonstration and Training Center expands customer relationships by offering product demonstrations, system qualifications, new technology displays and off-site operator training opportunities.

The Training and Demonstration Center has housed machines from AIM, Bobst, B&R Moll, Gietz, Heidelberg, IPBM and more. Leary’s gluing and application systems can also be seen in numerous OEM showrooms.

Continued Growth

Worldwide growth has been supported by Leary European headquarters in Basildon, UK, as well as additional offices in Mexico City, Mexico and Toronto, Canada. With the need for a more localized network of sales and service, Leary entered into a partnership with Robatech Gluing Technology in 2014, an agreement that enabled the Robatech worldwide network to sell and service the Leary cold glue and quality assurance solutions. Currently, Leary is offered in over 60 countries servicing the LATAM, European, and Oceanian countries. Extensive corporate support and sales development is offered from Leary headquarters to support this growing network.

Recent participation in key European and Asian OEM open houses demonstrates the need for an improved gluing & quality assurance supplier that offers technologically advanced solutions with dedicated service and support.