THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250355
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 37 lines
In the latest consolidation of fuel-oil dealers in Hampton Roads, Schaubach Cos. has agreed to acquire the oil-distribution and heating-and-air conditioning unit of G.A. Downs & Sons Inc. in Norfolk.
Downs & Sons operations and employees will become part of Johns Brothers Inc., a Norfolk-based oil distributor and heating-and-cooling concern that Schaubach Cos. acquired in February.
Donald Downs, head of family-owned Downs & Sons, said his company's rental and construction operations will not be part of the transaction, which is due to close July 1. The terms were not disclosed.
Downs, who will join the Johns Brothers' management team, said the transaction was prompted partly by an uncertain outlook for the management succession at his company and by his familiarity with Dwight C. Schaubach, president and chief executive officer of Chesapeake-based Schaubach Cos.
``We and Mr. Schaubach go back many years and have done business together,'' Downs said.
In February, Schaubach bought a majority stake in Johns Brothers and its security-alarm business, Johns Brothers Security Inc.
Schaubach Cos. also manages three waste-hauling companies for their owner, Republic Industries Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. They are Area Container Service Inc., Incendere Inc. and Smithton Sanitation Service Inc.
Separately, Johns Brothers Security said it will open a Newport News office on July 1 to handle sales and installations of alarm systems on the Peninsula.
The company has hired five employees for the new office on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard, said Vincent G. Thomas II, executive vice president of Johns Brothers Security. The company, which does business between Richmond and Cape Hatteras, N.C., has 42 employees and two other offices in Norfolk and Kitty Hawk, N.C. by CNB