As the wine industry continues to recover from pandemic-related hardships, along with ongoing challenges from global supply chain disruptions, Gusmer Enterprises, a leading supplier of liquid filtration products, fermentation technology, and beverage processing aids, responded by investing in a new filtration manufacturing facility to better meet the needs of its beverage customers now and in the future. The company is proud to announce that a new 130,000-square-foot facility in Hickory, NC, is completed and is currently manufacturing liquid filtration media and devices. The expansion significantly increases its filtration manufacturing capacity, which means that customers in the beverage, food, and pharmaceutical industries worldwide will see improved lead times and increased supply.

This new facility joins two other manufacturing sites in Fresno, CA, and Waupaca, WI. It will allow room for growth and permit Gusmer to continue providing customers with exceptional products, responsive service, and dependability and flexibility in addressing customers' business needs.

Family-owned Gusmer Enterprises has served the beverage industry with innovative products and services for over a century. The third generation of the Gusmer family owns and manages the company founded by Aage Gusmer in 1918. Today, it is a leader in manufacturing and distributing filtration products, including depth filter sheets and Cellu-Stack lenticular filters, membrane cartridges, fiber filter aids, and cross-flow filters.

 “Gusmer is known for our strong R&D and manufacturing competencies in filtration products and fermentation nutrients. One of our most popular filter sheet lines is the Color Sensitive Filter (CSF) series. The CSF series will be coming back into stock at all Gusmer stocking warehouses, including Fresno, CA and Mountainside, NJ, the Napa lab/storefront, and the Windsor (Sonoma) storefront this summer.” says Mui Lay, Gusmer Enterprises’ Product Manager for Filter Media.

Many winemakers and other beverage customers prefer this filter sheet grade because it results in less initial color stripping during filtration than other sheets, making it highly effective for color-sensitive beverages. The gradient density filter sheets are a composite of cellulose pulps and filter aids produced with controlled porosity. The result enhances throughput capacity, and the sheets consistently remove micron and sub-micron particulate, such as gross solids, haze constituents, yeast, bacteria, and colloids, while preserving color, aromas, and flavors. The sheets are water cut to ensure less edge leakage and retain more product.

“CSF is a great choice for color-sensitive beverages,” says Lay, “since any time you filter a colored beverage, the filter media will pick up some of the color. With rosés and many red wines, for example, you want to preserve as much color as you can.”

The Gusmer Technical Sales team brings beverage industry experience, with many that have experience making fermented beverages. They can tap into that valuable experience when responding to customers’ questions about Gusmer filter sheet products.

“Whenever a customer purchases a Gusmer filter product, it includes Gusmer’s Service with Knowledge®. We are unique in that we offer higher levels of support for our filter media customers,” says Lay, who worked at a Davis brewery before starting in the R&D Lab 12 years ago. “If a customer has an application or technical need, their Technical Sales Representative works closely with them and our internal Applications and Filtration R&D resources to troubleshoot and find a solution. “

Contact your Gusmer representative to learn more about the Color Sensitive Filter (CSF) series and the many filtration and fermentation products Gusmer provides to the wine industry.