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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 9, 1995                   TAG: 9508090088
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

RUBATEX SOLD TO N.Y. FIRM

The parent company of Rubatex Corp., a Roanoke-based maker of foam rubber products, has agreed to sell its holdings, including operations in Bedford.

RBX Holdings Inc., Rubatex's owners, will be sold to the privately owned New York-based American Industrial Partners, Rubatex's spokesman and vice president of human resources, Gerald Kirschke, said Tuesday.

RBX's parent company, a New York investment group titled AEA, signed an agreement Friday that would give American Industrial control of RBX. RBX, a management and investment company, bought Rubatex in 1990 and also owns six smaller companies across the nation.

Kirschke said it would be two or three months until the company changes hands. He wouldn't disclose the amount of the sale or the names of American Industrial's officers.

"The important thing is we don't expect any changes in term of management, employees or customers," Kirschke said. "Nothing's going to change. It's going to be business as usual."

Rubatex employs about 1,400 people - 700 of whom work in Bedford. The corporation nearly doubled its work force early this year when RBX acquired Halstead Corp., which had two foam rubber manufacturing plants in North Carolina and Arkansas.

Three weeks ago, Kirshcke declined to comment on talk among Rubatex workers that the plant was being shown to prospective buyers.

When RBX purchased Rubatex, company officials said they would sell public stock after RBX paid off debts from its 1990 leveraged buyout of the rubber manufacturer. The company, however, has remained privately owned.

by CNB