Global Fastener News

December 18, 1989 FIN – Following is a summary of the major ownership changes which took place in the fastener industry during 1989 in both the manufacturing and distribution segments of the industry. We’ve also included a summary of the new companies which opened including manufacturers, distributors, and joint ventures.

Manufacturers

TriMas Corp., Taylor, Michigan, parent company of Lake Erie Screw Corp. and Eskay Screw Products, was granted approval to operate by the Securities Exchange Commission early in 1989.
TriMas, partially owned by the public and 50% owned by Masco Corp., operates a number of other manufacturing concerns previously operated by Masco Industries.
As a result of the transaction, TriMas has a substantial cash reserve and credit line available and will be looking to expand its operations during 1990.

Harvard Industries, Inc., Uniondale, New Jersey, the parent company of Elastic Stop Nut (ESNA), was taken private by a management-led investment group headed by William D. Hurley. ESNA operates an Aerospace Fastener facility in Union, New Jersey, which produces fas
teners and precision engineered parts for commercial and military aircraft and a Commercial/Industrial facility in Pocahontas, Arkansas, which produces fasteners for the automotive, farming, electronics, and mining industries.

Textron, Inc., outbid Banner Industries for Avdel plc for about $228 million.
Avdel is a major British-based producer of blind rivets, fasteners, and fastening systems with U.S. operations based in Parsippany, New Jersey.
Editor’s Note:  This deal is still under review, however, by the Federal Trade Commission which is examining possible monopolies in certain lines of aerospace and automotive fastener lines among others.
Taken together, the annual sales level of the combined operations of Textron’s Townsend, Cherry, and Camcar divisions is one of the largest in the world at over $300 million.

Stanley Works, New Britain, Connecticut, acquired the Spenax specialty fastener business (a manufacturer of hog ring fasteners for the furniture and auto industries) from Spanex Corp., Shelbyville, Indiana (January 14).
The Parker Group, a producer of glue guns, staplers, riveters, and soldering tools, with manufacturing facilities in Northboro, Worchester, and Southboro, Massachusetts.


Galt Industries, a private holding company based in Boston, Massachusetts, acquired the MetalCrafters and PlasticCrafters divisions from Keystone Consolidated Industries.
Operating out of a 500,000 sq. ft. facility in Rockford, Illinois the two divisions manufacture metal and plastic fasteners for the automotive industry.
Galt Industries also owns Acme Rivet & Machine, of Bristol, Connecticut.

Towne Robinson Inc., Dearborn, Michigan, a manufacturer of automotive fasteners, is now majority owned by a private investment group headed by Don Hill.
The former Towne Robinson Fastener Co. was previously owned entirely by Key Mfg. Group, a public company, which still has a minority interest in the company.

Construction Fasteners, Inc., Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, acquired Sierra Fasteners, Pico Rivera, California.
Construction Fasteners manufactures roof insulation and membrane fasteners marketed under the names Dekfast and WeatherGard.
The Sierra Fasteners operations were merged with Construction Fasteners’ WeatherGard division.

Allfast Fastening Systems, Inc., City of Industry, California, acquired the aerospace blind rivet division of Olympic Fastening Systems, Downey, California, including the assets, rights, and technology to produce Olympic-Lok, Bulb-Lok, Hi-Clinch, Spacer, and Oscar rivets as well as other product lines.
Olympic Fastening Systems continues to manufacture its commercial lines of blind rivets and installation tooling.

Wrought Washer Mfg., Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, acquired the assets of MSL Stamping, Joliet, Illinois, consolidating two manufacturers of specialty washers and stampings.
Wrought is currently relocating the MSL operations to its own facilities in Wisconsin and has also broken ground for a 105,000 sq. ft. facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, which, according to the company, will double its capacity.

Maze Nails, Peru, Illinois, acquired Tremont Nails, Wareham, Massachusetts, merging two of the oldest producers of cut nails in the U.S.
Nail products offered from the combined operations include ring and screw shank wire nails, ring nails, and masonry and floor nails, among others.

Emhart Corp. was acquired by Black & Decker, Towson, Maryland, for about $2.8 billion. Emhart’s corporate headquarters were relocated from Farmington, Connecticut, to Black & Decker’s headquarters in Towson.
As a result of the merger, Peter Scott, former chairman and chief executive officer of Emhart, was named chairman of Black & Decker, and Nolan Archibald, former chairman of Black & Decker, was named president and chief executive officer of Black & Decker.
During 1989 Black & Decker began divesting some of Emhart’s operations to pay down debt. None of the divestitures to date have involved any of Emhart’s fastener operations, which include the Parker-Kalon, Heli-Coil, Gripco, Warren, POP, and Molly operations.

Republic Fastener Mfg., Newbury Park, California, acquired the aerospace nut business from Cherry Division of Textron.
The aerospace nut business, founded as the Booth Nut Co., was acquired by the Townsend Division of Textron and later acquired by Cherry, which moved the operation to the west coast.

Vestar Capital Partners, Inc., New York, New York, for about $90 million, acquired certain assets of the Monogram Aerospace Group from Nortek, Inc.
MAG Aerospace Industries, Inc., headquartered in Los Angeles, California, now operates four out of six businesses previously part of Nortek’s group.
Vestar owns a majority of the stock of MAG and the remaining shares are owned by the management teams of each respective business segment.
One of the four businesses is Monogram Aerospace Fasteners, which produces blind bolts, temporary fasteners, panel fasteners, permanent and temporary radial expansion fasteners, and other products and tooling.
The management team at Monogram Aerospace Fasteners is headed by Joseph Morrow.

Banner Industries, Cleveland, Ohio, acquired Fairchild Industries, Chantilly, Virginia, for about $400 million, increasing its presence in the aerospace fastener industry .
Banner acquired the Rexnord fastener operations during 1988. Banner later sold off Fairchild’s space and defense electronics unit to Matra of France, but continues to operate Fairchild’s Voi-Shan aerospace fastener business, Screwcorp (a producer of non-aerospace fasteners), and Harco (a distributor of locknuts and blind rivets). All of these operations are in California.

Valley Rivet Co., Inc., Aurora, Illinois, was acquired by Four D Acquisition Corp., Cheverly, Maryland.
Randall Norris, president of Valley Rivet, and the rest of the senior management team remained in place.

Milford Rivet & Machine Co., Milford, Connecticut, was acquired by Rostra Holdings, Inc. in partnership with Larry Schwoeri, president of Jaclind Group, Southport, Connecticut.
The new ownership got an OK from the federal bankruptcy court to proceed with the acquisition plan. This took Milford Rivet out of a complex bankruptcy case dating back to late 1985 when it was owned by RBS Industries.
Milford Rivet, a producer of equipment, and other cold formed fasteners and parts, operates plants in Milford, Connecticut; Elyria, Ohio; and Fullerton, California.

Illinois Tool Works (ITW) Chicago, Illinois, acquired the assets of the small screw and nut business of Buell Industries, Waterbury, Connecticut (October 1).
The small screw and nut business will fall under ITW’s Shakeproof division, which is deciding where to relocate the manufacturing operations (ITW’s Waterbury, Connecticut facility or others in the Chicago area are possibilities).
Unaffected by the sale were Buell’s fastener producing operations in Bedford Heights, Ohio, which will continue to produce large size fasteners.
Earlier in the year, ITW acquired Alpine Screw Products Co., Rockford, Illinois, which was merged with ITW’s Shakeproof Industrial Products Distribution business segment. Alpine’s product lines include tapping, machine, and thread cutting screws made from steel and stainless steel.

Rockford Bolt & Steel Co. and its division Jackson Screw Co. were sold by the Varlan Corp. to a private investment group headed by Michael G. Rosman, who had held the position of president at Rockford Bolt & Steel since 1976.
Rosman and other upper management will continue their duties.
Rockford Bolt & Steel produces a full line of hot and cold headed fasteners for the railroad, construction, agriculture, and electrical/communications market.
Jackson Screw produces specialty and standard fasteners for the automotive, appliance, and electronics industries.

Distributors

Equity Growth Corp., Fairfield, New Jersey, the parent company of T.A. and D.A. Troy, a distributor of stainless and other corrosion resistant fasteners, acquired Majestic Screw-Bolt from the Puente family.
Majestic Screw-Bolt is a distributor of fasteners for the industrial, hardware, and electrical markets with a packaging facility in Janesville, Wisconsin and branches in Los Angeles, California and Ft. Worth, Texas.
Equity Growth also added a domestic manufacturer to its fold by acquiring Maryland Bolt & Nut Co., Inc.
Maryland Bolt & Nut produces bolts and nuts in steel and steel alloys. The company plans on adding stainless steel and exotic metal product lines.

Tidewater Industrial Fasteners Corp., Norfolk, Virginia changed hands from the first to second generation of family ownership.
Founded by Walter Walz and Ruth Young (formerly Ruth Walz), Tidewater was acquired by Kathleen Walz Vaughan and her husband, Ed Vaughn.
Tidewater is a full line fastener distributor.

SEP Industrial Holdings, London, England, which operates SEP American Fastener Corp., Dallas, Texas, expanded its distribution network by acquiring Precision Socket Screw, Billerica, Massachusetts.
SEP entered the U.S. marketplace during 1988 by acquiring American Socket Screw, Wood Dale, Illinois, and Newformed Products.
Precision Socket Screw, which has since become the eastern division of American Socket Screw, added carbon steel roll pins, Grade 8 hex cap screws, nylon insert lock nuts, standard set screw shaft collars, and square head set screws to American Socket Screw’s product lines.

West Spec Corp., Van Nuys, California, was acquired by Tadokoro Tech Corp., a major supplier of stainless steel metal products based in Osaka, Japan.
West Spec, which supplies distributors only with stainless steel, brass, and bronze fasteners, will open a new branch in Atlanta, Georgia on January 2, 1990.

Glass City Bolt & Nut, Toledo, Ohio, was acquired by Phillip Joelson, chairman, and his son, Harlan Joelson, president, from the Greiner family. The Joelsons have backgrounds outside the fastener industry.
Glass City supplies the auto repair and general maintenance markets with a full line of fasteners in western Ohio, southern Michigan, and parts of Indiana.

Fastener Services, Inc., Detroit, Michigan, acquired a controlling interest in Florida Bolt & Nut, which continues to be minority owned and operated by Michael Swartz, president, and Cheryl Warner, executive vice president.
Florida Bolt & Nut, a distributor of a full line of bolts and nuts as well as tie rods, also performs some of its own secondary operations.

New Companies Formed – Manufacturers

Unytite, Peru, Illinois, by the end of the year, will begin trial runs to produce tension control bolts and other bolts for the construction and heavy equipment industries.
Unytite was formed earlier this year at which time ground was broken for a new facility. The company is headed by Jun Hashimoto, president, and owned by Unytite Ltd., based in Japan.

Jointly-Owned U.S./Japanese Manufacturing Ventures

Key Manufacturing Group and Sato Rashi formed a joint venture to produce automotive nuts and bolts for Japanese transplant auto makers.
Key Fasteners, headed by Jack Marsh, general manager, operates out of a new facility in Berne, Indiana.

Elco Industries, Rockford, Illinois and Nagoya Screw Manufacturing established Rocknell Fasteners, a 50/50 joint venture formed to supply high strength engine bolts to Japanese transplant auto makers in North America.
Rocknell is located in a 56,000 sq. ft. facility owned by Elco in Rockford, Illinois.

Ring Screw Works, Madison Heights, Michigan, and Saga Tekkosho is completing a facility in Dexter (Ann Arbor), Michigan to supply U.S. and transplant auto makers with mainly engine bolts. Production is expected to begin in early 1990.

Distributors/Importers

Anchoring Systems, Inc., Winchester, Kentucky, opened to supply the U.S. distributor and wholesale markets with anchor products.
Formed by an investment group headed by Larry Baker, president, the company has a long term agreement with a Brazilian manufacturer to supply steel wedge, sleeve, drop-in, self drill, and stud anchors and plans to add other anchor lines. Anchoring Systems’ main office is located at 327 White and Conkwright Rd., Winchester, KY 40391.

Locknuts Unlimited Corp. was formed in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, by Fred Hegal to import and distribute a full line of locknuts, keps nuts, flange nuts, reversibles, nylon insert wingnuts, and other specials. The company is located at 1261 Howard St., Elk Grove Village, IL 60007.

Uni-Tech, Charlotte, North Carolina, headed by Peter Planchon, was formed as a joint venture to market products manufactured by Uniset and USE-Diamond.
Uniset is a manufacturer of powder actuated tools, and USE-Diamond is a manufacturer of anchor products (including concrete, wedge, tap-it, nylon, and a fairly rare line of chemical anchors).

SA&R Industries, Inc., Shaumberg, Illinois, was formed as an importer handling direct mill shipments for distributors ony of a full line of steel and stainless steel fasteners, cold formed nuts, and washers. Headed by Dan Swiglo.

Autofast, Inc., Unionville, Connecticut, opened as a new distributor of fasteners and accessories supplying the automotive aftermarket in the New England area.

Tecnex Overseas, New York, New York, an affiliate of Intercontinental Metals, was established as an importer of high quality automotive and specialty fasteners.
The company is headed by Carlos Martinez, Michael Mirsky, and Leonard Brownstein.

Tyson Bolt & Screw, Tampa, Florida, headed by Jerry Tyson and John Tyson, opened a facility to supply central Florida with standard and special fasteners.  ©1989/2014 Fastener Industry News.
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