Heritage Brands: What Does This Mean & Why Buy?
Heritage and nostalgia, those warm and fuzzy feelings that evoke memories of happy times past, are in demand these days. But they’re not quite the same thing. What makes people feel nostalgic is a personal thing and it varies depending on who you ask. Someone who grew up in the 1970s might feel nostalgic for bell-bottom jeans, roller skating rinks, and songs by the Eagles or the Jackson 5. But if you were an ’80s or ’90s kid, those nostalgia-evoking images will be different and based on what was popular during those times. Pink and green polo shirts, the Go-Gos, Beanie Babies, the list goes on. Nostalgia marketing is a hot trend right now, targeted specifically to those groups.
Heritage is something different. Heritage means a product, company or brand has stood the test of time. At Behrens, we know something about that. We’ve been making our galvanized steel products for more than 100 years. We’re proud to be known as a heritage brand in the industry and by our consumers as well. What does it mean and why should consumers choose to buy from heritage brands? It’s all about standing the test of time, weathering trends that can come and go, and doing it all with unparalleled quality. A look at our company history will tell you a bit about that.
Handcrafted Heritage
Henry Behrens was born in Germany and came to this country in 1867. He settled in Winona, Minnesota, a bustling river town filled with hardworking people, a place where labor was a way of life. After marrying and having a son, known as Henry J, he opened a hardware store in downtown Winona to serve this thriving community. On the second floor of the store, young Henry J enjoyed tinkering with metal and came up with the idea for the “Cyclone Spinner,” an innovation to help people of the day wash their clothes. The idea took off, and Behrens Manufacturing was born. We’ve been serving hardworking people ever since, for more than 100 years.
Time-Tested Quality
We’ve been manufacturing hard-wearing, tough-as-nails buckets, pails, cans and tubs made from galvanized steel since the beginning. Workmanship and attention to detail were paramount because we knew these tools of the trade would be put to the test every day, on the job. We needed our products to get the job done with second-to-none reliability and performance — after all, the hardworking folks who used Behrens products in the early days were our friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens. We wanted to do right by them. We still think of our customers that way today, whether they’re here in Winona, where we’re still based, or around the globe.

Sustainability
Heritage is also about sustainability. A company, product or brand simply couldn’t be around for more than a century without having sustainability woven into the fabric of what it does. Today, “sustainability” is a popular buzzword, but at Behrens, it’s a way of life. Our 100-year-old sustainability practice uses galvanized steel. We recycle all of our scrap metal every day, leaving no waste on the manufacturing floor. We use it all.
Why Consumers Care About Heritage Brands
Millennials and Gen Z care about the sustainability aspect of heritage brands, and are willing to pay more for products that have been manufactured using sustainable practices.
When people buy from Behrens, be it retail stores that are stocking our products or individual consumers, they can have the confidence that they’re buying time-tested quality. When you’re around for 100 years, growing from a hardware store to a manufacturing facility that served the surrounding area to serving customers across the USA and Canada as we do today, that really says something about the quality of the products you produce. We’re proud of that. Our customers see the same workmanship we’ve put into every bucket and pail since the beginning.
Our consumers can feel confident in the strong, hard-working, dependable products they purchase from Behrens because they know we’ve got 100 years of history behind us.
Behrens is rooted in purpose and values. Behrens’ brand positioning is around making products that are 100% recyclable and partnering with global non-profit, Metal Recycles Forever. Sustainability is central to the brand’s message and encourages consumers to do the right thing for the environment. Behrens provides additional environmentally friendly tips on its website with recycling partnerships to support metal and steel recycling across the country.

The Heritage Trend
We were heritage before heritage was cool, but the fact is, buying from heritage brands is on trend these days, whether it’s from food companies, clothing manufacturers, or Behrens. Even Coca-Cola has reissued their original-style glass bottles. The nostalgia factor is high, but it’s more than that. It’s about a longing for quality that is missing these days.
In this age in which consumers can and do buy many products online with the click of a mouse, only to have the items arrive and find the quality is very poor, (or never arrive at all) the realization is setting in that online shopping can be a risky proposition. Unless you’re buying from a brand you know and trust, you never know what you’re getting or who you’re buying it from.
Similarly, the “planned obsolescence” of many of today’s products, from cell phones to televisions to computers, is wearing very thin on consumers, and in the courts as well. The concept is that companies manufacture products — expensive products — with a built-in shelf life.
At Behrens, we don’t understand that way of doing business. Our products are made to last. Period. Anything less is letting down our consumers. And that’s against everything we believe in and were founded on.
So, whether our consumers are purchasing our Signature Collection work-horse pails, buckets and cans for tough jobs, or our new, ultra-versatile Home Industrial line that you can use for everything from entertaining to cleaning to home decor to gardening, you know you’re getting the time-tested quality, durability and legacy that comes from a rich, 100-history.

Behrens on Sustainability
Behrens wants consumers and retailers to know that steel is one of the most sustainable products on the planet. With 70% of domestic steel starting as scrap metal, it can be infinitely recycled with no loss of inherent properties, is rodent-proof, odor-proof, weather and chemical resistant with zero petroleum. All of these attributes make steel a superior material to plastic, a limited-recyclable material that is shown to harm wildlife, oceans and people.
Visit behrensmfg.com to learn more, including where to find a scrap metal recycler in your area. An electronic media kit is available at behrensmfg.com/press.
About Behrens
Founded in 1911, Behrens Manufacturing creates high-quality, well-crafted metalware in Winona, Minnesota. From the past century to today, Behrens is forever forged into the fabric of U.S. manufacturing and remains a tribute to American ingenuity and craftsmanship. Behrens Manufacturing is proud to be the number one steel container manufacturer in America. Visit online at behrensmfg.com to learn more.