Where We Started
DS Containers is a unique Japanese-American partnership (DS is derived from Daiwa-Seikan – the latter is the Japanese word for can making). The founder of the American side of the equation was William J. Smith, Sr., a packaging veteran with over 50 years of experience. He was the founding CEO of U.S. Can Company, and before that, Executive Vice President of American Can Company’s Paper Division, then the nation’s largest packaging company.
In both places, he established relationships with Daiwa and was instrumental in forging the present arrangement.
Many of the new products and technologies introduced into the Japanese can industry in the past 40 years originated with Daiwa. They include the first production of liquid coffee cans, the first drawn-and-ironed steel cans, centralized end making, coil laminating and the “New Bottle Can”; the first re-sealable metal can in the worldwide beverage market.
Today Daiwa has 11 plants and represents approximately one-third of the can industry in Japan. For more information, click on Daiwa Can Company.
