Global Fastener News

FASTENER HISTORY

August 1, 1981 FIN – They are answering the phone in Statesville, NC “Southern Screw” again: It seems like old times.
NL Industries Inc. has stopped calling its subsidiary NL Fasteners as a first step in trying to divest itself of its acquired fastener operation. Southern Screw was formed in 1945 by Fritz Jensen to make wood screws for southern furniture manufacturers. It was acquired by NL Industries (then National Lead) in 1955. NL sees its future in the petroleum service industry, for which it makes a wide range of products, equipment and technical services for the exploration, drilling and production of oil and gas.
Of its 1980 sales, 59% or $1.26 billion were in this area; 5%, or 111.9 million were in metals operations other than castings. This classification, which includes not only Southern Screw, but the manufacturer of bearings for the railroad industry and the Tool & Engineering division, which provides prototype assemblies and services to automotive manufacturers, was down 17% in 1980 below 1979. All three of these metals operations suffered declines. Southern Screw has been restructuring its product line over the past five years from 90% standardized, commodity type products in 1976 to nearly 50% special fasteners involving higher technology and higher margins. A cost-cutting program has gone along with the switch.
It has also switched from being strictly a manufacturer, adding imports to its line. In what it calls its Econoline, it imports hexhead cap screws, self-piercing screws, twin fast wood screws, lock nuts, lock nut assemblies, nylon insert nuts and finished hex nuts. Aside from hard times in the fastener industry in general, people in the industry attribute Southern Screw’s recent problems to a combination of the lack of flexibility found in a conglomerate operation, and to trying to have too broad a product line – “trying to be all things to all men.” At one time Southern Screw controlled the wood screw business in the U.S. and a good bit of the sheet metal screw business with its handle on the furniture market.
With the switch in the world fastener market, even a low cost producer in the South could not compete with imports. It began to bring in imports, but observers think it made the decision too late: Heads & Threads, Reynolds and a host of others had beat them to it. Still, Southern Screw has a very good, well-equipped plant in Statesville, and a very large reputation in the industry. In the right hands, it could become a profitable fixture in the industry again. ©1981/2009 Fastener Industry News. Contact editor@GlobalFastenerNews.com for written permission to reuse or reprint FIN articles.