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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 23, 1994                   TAG: 9411230110
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RUBATEX OWNER TO GROW

RBX Holdings, parent of the Rubatex Corp. of Bedford, said Tuesday it has signed an agreement to buy the Halstead Corp., a maker of flexible foam rubber products.

RBX will buy Halstead, which operates plants in Arkansas and North Carolina, from its parent, Halstead Industries Inc. of Greensboro, N.C. The purchase is expected to be complete by the end of the year, Rubatex said in a statement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Halstead's business activities will be merged with those of Rubatex and their management and administrative functions will be consolidated in a single site. It has not been decided if that will be at Bedford, Rubatex spokesman Kenneth Hawkins said.

Hawkins said it's too early to say what the impact of the purchase will be on overall employment at Rubatex.

Rubatex is one of the world's largest makers of sponge rubber products. It supplies customers worldwide from the Bedford plant and six warehouses nationwide. Halstead has two plants, in Colt, Ark., and Conover, N.C., which will operate as a part of Rubatex.

Roughly 800 people, including 650 hourly workers - most members of the United Rubber Workers union - are employed at the Bedford Rubatex plant. Halstead's plant in Arkansas is also a union operation but the plant in North Carolina is non-union.

Price Parker Jr., president of Local 240 at the Bedford plant, said the union had been kept informed of the deal with Halstead. "I hope in the long run it's going to make our business better," Parker said.

Steven Schaefer, president and chief executive officer of RBX, termed the transaction exciting. "We believe that by combining the technical, management and manufacturing strengths of these two fine companies we will create a company with an exceptionally broad line of quality products supported by state-of-the-art facilities."

Rubatex products go to makers of heating, ventilating and air conditioning insulation; to makers of sports medicine products, sporting goods, and for transportation and general industrial uses.

The company said the acquisition of Halstead will enable it to enhance its position in many of those markets and to enter other markets with Halstead's various flexible foam products.

by CNB