BOARDMAN American Paper goes up for sale

A $7 million investment in printing presses boosted profitability by 15 percent.
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
BOARDMAN -- The owner of American Paper Group has hired an adviser to help it sell the envelope maker.
"The shareholders feel it's time to cash out," said Thomas Pietrocini, company chairman and chief executive.
Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & amp; Co., a New York investment company, has invested $7 million in new equipment since January 2001 to reduce operating costs, he said. Profitability is up 15 percent, he said.
The investment company, which acquired American Paper Group in 1998, has hired Houlihan, Lokey, Howard & amp; Zukin Capital as its financial adviser in the proposed sale. Pietrocini said sales such as this normally take four to six months.
American Paper Group, which is based at 8401 Southern Blvd., has two divisions.
American Church is the country's largest distributor of monthly mailed and boxed-set church envelopes. It has 35,000 church clients and a 40 percent share of the offertory envelope industry.
It prints envelopes that are made by its sister division, American Paper Products, which also makes direct-mail envelopes for various companies.
American Church, which has a plant on McClurg Road, has about 100 employees, while about 90 work at the adjacent American Paper plant on Southern Boulevard. There also are an additional 50 workers in administration.
Employment cutbacks
The equipment upgrades have allowed the company to cut back on employment in Richmond, Va.
"We've substituted capital for labor," Pietrocini said.
The new equipment has eliminated about five steps from the making of boxed sets of envelopes, he said.
Digital printing allows full-color envelopes to be printed in fewer steps. Previously, colors and addresses had to be added separately. Also, a variety of envelope types now can be printed in sequence.
Before, envelopes for holidays or special collections had to be printed separately and collated.
The Richmond plant has 58 workers now, which is a reduction of about 60.
Originally, one new press line was in Richmond and one in Boardman, but both are now in Boardman.
American Church closed a plant in Arizona last year and merged that operation into the Boardman plant.
Beside envelopes, American Church has expanded its offerings into products such as bulletins, stationery and postcards.
Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & amp; Co. owns 21 companies in a variety of industries, including consumer goods, industrial goods, health care and technology.
It acquired American Paper Group in 1998 from Morgenthaler Ventures of Cleveland, Stolberg Properties of New York and company executives.
The company was founded as American Paper Products Co. by three local residents in 1915 in East Liverpool and moved to Boardman in 1957.
shilling@vindy.com