Fellowes, Inc. Receives 2007 Chicago Innovation Award

Fellowes, Inc. was recently named a recipient of the 2007 Chicago Innovation Award for its Powershred DS1 personal shredder that provides best-in-class safety features and superior performance. The award was presented to the company on Monday, Oct. 22 at a private ceremony held at the Goodman Theatre in downtown Chicago.

“We are honored to be recognized as a leading innovator in the Chicagoland-area,” said Nancy Heaton, senior global marketing manager for Fellowes, Inc. “This award marks our strong commitment to safety, which has always been a top priority for our company. The DS1 personal shredder is a true testament of our dedication to continuously enhancing our products to have the safest features possible.”

This year marks the sixth annual Chicago Innovation Awards competition, which was co-founded in 2002 by Kuczmarski & Associates and the Chicago Sun-Times, and is designed to honor significant innovations introduced by Chicago-area companies.

Award nominees were judged based on the success of products and services introduced between May 2006 and July 2007 that uniquely satisfied unmet needs in the marketplace. The Fellowes Powershred DS1 personal shredder was one of 10 winners, chosen from nearly 250 nominees.

The Powershred DS1 features patented SafeSense™ technology that protects the safety of the user, including children and larger pets, by automatically disabling the shredder when sensing hands or pets are too close to the paper entry. An electronic sensor surrounds the shredder’s paper entry and shuts down the machine immediately when it comes in contact with the energy field created by humans and large pets. The cross-cut machine also shreds 11 sheets of paper per pass, along with staples, paper clips and credit cards.

After its launch in August 2005, the Powershred DS1 quickly became Fellowes’ best-selling personal shredder, outselling Fellowes other personal shredders by more than 50 percent. Due to the DS1’s success, Fellowes has gone on to add its SafeSense technology into nine additional shredder models and plans to roll out seven new models in 2008.

About Fellowes
Headquartered in Itasca, Ill., Fellowes, Inc. offers an impressive range of products to equip the workspace, including paper shredders, binders and laminators, desktop accessories and record storage solutions. Fellowes, Inc. owns and operates subsidiaries in Canada, United Kingdom, Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Singapore, Japan, Korea, China and Australia, the company employs more than 2,700 people throughout the world and expects global sales in excess of $700 million this year.

About the Chicago Innovation Awards
Kuczmarski & Associates and the Chicago Sun-Times established the Chicago Innovation Awards in 2002 as an annual program to honor significant innovations introduced by Chicago-area companies. Each year the Chicago Innovation Awards honor 10 winners who have introduced products or services that uniquely fill unmet needs, generate a competitive response in the marketplace, exceed market expectations and achieve financial success. For more information, visit www.ChicagoInnovationAwards.com.