Global Fastener News

June 10, 1985 FIN – Fairchild Industries, Germantown, Maryland, has signed a letter of intent to sell its VSI Hardware Products Division for $35 million. The Hardware Division includes the VSI Fastener Company and VSI Hardware Company.

VSI Fastener Company will be sold to Phil Furst, the company’s founder and president for $25 million, a Fairchild spokesman in Chantilly, Virginia, told FIN. VSI Hardware Company is expected to be sold to its president, Charles Sweetman, for $10 million. The deals are expected to be consummated by the end of July.
Fairchild Industries is organized into four business groups: Communications, Electronics & Space; Government Aerospace; Commercial Aviation; and Commercial/Industrial.
The Commercial/Industrial consists of Voi-Shan/Screwcorp and Harco aerospace fasteners; D-M-E tooling for plastics; Greer Hydraulics fluid energy; Cardkey access control systems; Natter Manufacturing; Tubing Seal Cap; Short Run Stamping; Pheoll of Minnesota; VSI Hardware Products, a distributor of products of the hosing industry and the home; and Fairchild Industrial Products Company, builder of pneumatic electro pneumatic and mechanical power controls and systems for industrial customers.
There are four principal lines of hardware products; commercial fastener such as screws, bolts and nuts; bathroom accessories; home security products; and in-house storage products. The commercial fasteners and security products are packaged, labeled and sold to hardware stores, lumber yards, industrial users and building contractors.
Recently VSI Hardware Products opened a new automated packaging facility in Phoenix, Arizona, to reduce one of the major costs in this low-priced line of household fasteners. VSI Hardware Products also recently consolidated fastener and hardware warehouse facilities in Atlanta and Houston.
A company spokesman in Chantilly, Virginia, told FIN that VSI Fastener Company is “consumer oriented packaging and distribution concern with limited manufacturing.” He went on to say that this sale is part of Fairchild’s continuing strategy to divest companies that do not fit long range plans.
Company president Phil Furst told FIN that most of the company’s fasteners are imported and are distributed to home centers and mass merchandisers through out the U.S. through the company’s 9 warehouses. He said they will continue to share the Atlanta facility with VSI Hardware Company, but that VSI Hardware will be establishing its own warehouse in Houston. He also said that he did not know if the company, which has 300 employees, will go public.
Furst originally founded the company in 1956, then known as Furst Bolt & Screw, in the back of a hardware store. It was sold to VSI in 1968, and to Fairchild in 1980. Hurst remained with the company throughout the changes in ownership. He will be chief executive officer of the company and Arnold Scribner, currently division controller, will be president. The company is located at 12363 Beach Boulevard, Stanton, CA 90680 Tel: 714/891-8400.
As we reported in our last newsletter, the apparent changes at Fairchild—a purported change in corporate direction from aircraft products to communications and electronics, the election of Emanuel Fthenakis to president from chief operations officer, and now the pending sales of VSI Hardware Products Division—should not have any affect on Harco and Voi-Shan/Screwcorp. The company spokesman also said that the segments of the Industrial & building Products Division including Pheoll of Minnesota, a distributor of industrial fasteners. Short Run Stamping Company and Tubing Seal Cap Company will not be affected.
Fairchild reported 1984 net earnings of $1,382,000 down from $28,405,000 in 1983 and 1984 earnings per share loss of 82 cents, compared to earnings per share of $1.16 in 1983. Recent sales figures are not immediately available.©1985/2012 Fastener Industry NewsFor information on permission to reuse or reprint this article please e-mail: FIN@GlobalFastenerNews.com