FOREVER finds a forever home in Village of Hobart

Rich Palzewic

Staff

September 20, 2023

HOBART – FOREVER, a memory and digitization business located at 4970 Founders Terrace in the Village of Hobart, recently moved into a new 25,000-square-foot building.

Situated right off Highway 29 west of Green Bay, FOREVER relocated from its previous location on Lineville Road in Suamico.

“What a great day to be in Hobart,” Aaron Kramer, Village of Hobart administrator, said. “The land FOREVER sits on today, the village purchased this 60 acres in the summer of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. We closed on this land in August 2020.”

Kramer said the first person he met with was Glen Meakem, founder and CEO of FOREVER.

“We met to talk about this raw land turning into reality,” Kramer said. “I know this (60 acres) will fill… FOREVER was No. 1 – they were first, saw the vision and brought their visions to reality.”

Meakem said FOREVER received tax increment financing from the Village of Hobart to assist with project financing.

The new 25,000-square-foot facility was designed and built by Bayland Buildings, which is also headquartered in Hobart.

“If you’re able to see the inside of our building, you’ll see it’s part loading dock, warehouse, processing area, media center, offices, server room – it’s a tremendously modern 21st-century building,” Meakem said. “It was a $4.5 million investment. We have about 30 employees right now, but with the new building, we could grow to about 130 in this facility.”

Meakem said the move from Suamico was “definitely needed.”

“This is the newest, best digitization center in the world,” he said. “All of the volume people sent to FOREVER from all over North America previously went to our Suamico location, but now it’s coming here to a much bigger facility – we’re going to grow a lot.”

About 95% of FOREVER’s business, Meakem said, comes from outside of the area.

FOREVER currently digitalizes more than 2 million memories per year. Submitted Rendering

“We have a partnership with FedEx, so people from all over the world are sending their FOREVER boxes to Hobart,” he said. “FedEx drives their truck inside – out of the weather – and we unload everything very securely. Everything is tracked – we have cameras everywhere. We also have a highly-trained workforce who know what they’re doing. FOREVER currently digitalizes more than two million memories each year.”

More on FOREVER
Meakem said his company is a great place to get all of your old VHS tapes, films, photos, slides, etc. digitized.

“FOREVER gives you the peace of mind that all of your memories will be preserved for generations to come,” he said. “It allows people to have a permanent home for their memories. You might ask why use us compared to other alternatives. The answer is simple – ‘because FOREVER storage is so different.’”

Meakem said FOREVER storage is permanent.

“When you buy our cloud storage, you’re not just buying for this month or year – you’re buying for your entire lifetime, plus 100 years – guaranteed,” he said.

How does FOREVER make that a reality?

“When you pay for our storage, the majority of the money you pay goes into the FOREVER Guarantee Fund,” Meakem said. “The fund is like a university endowment or like an insurance reserve fund. It’s a big pool of money where thousands of people have paid in – a little bit from everybody makes a lot.”

Meakem said from there, the money is invested into a diversified portfolio.

“It’s stocks, bonds and other assets that produce income over time,” he said. “We take a little bit of that income every year and pay for the cloud storage and maintenance. We have tremendous maintenance – we’re triple-backed up in a highly secure location. When we transmit data, it’s all encrypted.”

Encryption is the process of protecting information or data by using mathematical models to scramble it in such a way that only the parties who have the key to unscramble it can access it.

Founder/CEO Glen Meakem said FOREVER is the newest, best digitization center in the world. Rich Palzewic Photo

Meakem said the data is also maintained throughout the years.

“As technology changes – we all know it will – today’s data files won’t be viewable in the future, much like VHS tapes are no longer viewable,” he said. “But at FOREVER, we will migrate to new file formats as technology changes over time.”

Meakem said it’s also unique “because the storage is yours.”

“At FOREVER, it’s permanent and you own it – you control it,” he said. “You can download or upload from your FOREVER account as much as you want. You can also share with whoever you want.”

Additionally, Meakem said there are other options with FOREVER.

“You can print holiday cards, make photo books, etc.,” he said.

For more information on FOREVER, visit forever.com.