OUR SUNDAY VISITOR Envelope maker to close 1 plant, re-equip another

Some jobs have been cut and others depend on efforts to boost business.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
BOARDMAN -- The new owner of the former American Paper plants is closing one of them but installing new equipment in the other.
Our Sunday Visitor doesn't need both plants because of a reduction in business, said Kyle Hamilton, president of the company's envelope division.
Our Sunday Visitor sold American Paper's business of making commercial envelopes and is moving the production of church offertory envelopes for Catholic churches to its headquarters plant in Indiana.
By the end of the year, the production of offertory envelopes for Protestant churches will be all that's left in Boardman, Hamilton said. That business made up most of American Paper's sales, however.
The McClurg Road plant will be home to that business and will receive new equipment worth between $500,000 and $1 million, he said.
The new equipment, including printing and sorting equipment, is needed because there had been little investment in the business in recent years, he said.
The nearby plant on Southern Boulevard will be vacated by the end of the year, he said. That building was the home of the commercial business, which was sold six weeks ago to Bowers Envelope in Indianapolis.
Loss of customers
Hamilton said the business was damaged badly by a loss of customers during American Paper's bankruptcy proceedings. Commercial envelope sales had been $9 million a year but fell to an annual rate of nearly $3 million.
American Envelope, the new name of the business, has a month-to-month lease on the building that is being vacated. It also leases the McClurg Road facility.
Hamilton said American Envelope, which is continuing to market products under the American Church name, is stepping up sales and marketing efforts to increase business among Protestant churches in order to try to save jobs.
Because of the uncertainty of these efforts, company officials aren't sure how many workers will be needed once the Catholic business is gone. Some of it already has been moved, he said.
Layoffs
About 20 people have been laid off recently to reduce the work force to 260. American Paper also laid off 35 workers in December.
The company also is looking at reorganizing the plant's layout.
Our Sunday Visitor, which produces Catholic publications besides envelopes, bought the American Paper assets in January from a New York investment company for $17.4 million. It was the only company to submit an offer after American Paper filed for bankruptcy.
shilling@vindy.com