Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 8, 1995 TAG: 9504100022
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The deal announced Friday enhances Acadia's access to capital and management support, Acadia President Pat Malone said.
The sale includes what previously was Acadia Polymers and the JM Clipper Industrial Products Division, which are being combined as Acadia Elastomers Corp.
The Harbour Group of St. Louis on Thursday sold all of Acadia's stock for an undisclosed sum to the Jordan Co. of New York. Both Harbour and Jordan are private investment groups that own scores of companies. Jordan is about three times the size of Harbour in terms of the sales of the companies each owns
The new owner plans to keep Acadia's seven plants, including one at Iron Gate, running as usual, Malone said.
The company employs about 35 people at its Coulter Drive headquarters in Roanoke, which has been the company's home since a former owner bought a rubber-goods plant near Clifton Forge in Alleghany County that remains part of Acadia. That plant, where restructuring this year will trim the work force in half to about 125 people, is one of seven Acadia plants from Nacogdoches, Texas., to Marion, N.Y., employing more than 900 people.
Harbour bought Acadia in pieces beginning in 1989 and now is following through on its plan to sell the company within five to seven years, he said. It received well in excess of its investment from Jordan, but Jordan believes Acadia will keep paying dividends, Malone said.
"Jordan is buying us because of the potential for our future growth," Malone said. "We have been very successful."
Malone said Acadia will post sales of $88 million in the year ending in June, up from $52 million in 1992.
He said Acadia has 90 percent of the U.S. market for automotive lip seals installed in cars and trucks with automatic transmissions; sells a line of industrial products led by bearing-protection oil seals for machinery; and supplies internal rollers for copiers and printers.
The company also settled in Roanoke to be close to Roanoke Regional Airport; Malone claimed his employees buy the third-largest number of airline seats of any company in the area. Virginia Tech provided a third reason for the move, Malone said, and Acadia now hires one or two graduates a year from its rubber-molding program.
Under Jordan's wing, Acadia will benefit from oversight by a larger, older and more sophisticated holding company than Harbour, Malone said. The 40 companies Jordan owns have combined sales of $1.7 billion, compared to about $500 million for Harbour, he said. Its role will be to help manage Acadia and supply or arrange capital for expansion and acquisitions, a press release said.
At least two companies already in Jordan's stable have ties to the Roanoke Valley. The former president of American Safety Razor Co., a Verona maker of shaving and industrial blades and personal care products, is J. Gray Ferguson of Charlottesville. He founded Ferguson, Andrews & Associates Inc., a Roanoke-based investment broker, after he left American Safety Razor.
Also, Carmike Cinemas Inc. of Columbus, Ga., operates movie theaters at Tanglewood Mall, Salem Valley 8 and Valley View 6.
Several well-known firms round out the list, including confectionery maker and retailer Fanny May Candy Co. and NEWFLO Corp., which produces industrial values, pumps and meters.
by CNB