ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 13, 1994                   TAG: 9404130110
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FRANKLIN PLANT SOLD

A buyout by the management at DataCard Addressograph has given Franklin Countians a "new" business to call their own and some reassurance that at least one area company doesn't plan to send more workers to the unemployment lines.

NewBold Corp. bought the addressograph division in Rocky Mount from Minneapolis, Minn.-based DataCard Corp., which had been wanting to get out of the credit-card imprinter business.

NewBold CEO Robert Scott, who had been general manager at the plant in the Rocky Mount Industrial Park, said the company will become more aggressive than it was under the old ownership.

"We certainly don't intend to sit around doing what we've been doing for the last three years; we plan to invest for the future," Scott said. "Not to speak ill of DataCard, but they would spend the money where it brought the biggest bang for the buck."

DataCard built a 100,000-square-foot building in 1991, where 160 workers annually make 60 million plastic identification cards, used mostly by hospitals. NewBold's other primary business is assembling the machines merchants use to make an imprint of customers' credit cards.

Franklin County underwent some significant layoffs this winter, and Scott admitted the rumor mill was starting to peg DataCard as the next industry to issue bad employment news.

"We got a rousing round of applause when I announced it [sale of the company] yesterday," Scott said. "The stories down here in Franklin County with businesses moving out have not been particularly good."

NewBold said its takeover not only meant that there would be no layoffs at the plant, but the company's improved focus on its Franklin County operations would mean more jobs in the future.

Scott said NewBold would continue to work with DataCard through international dealers in more than 70 countries. 


 by CNB