Henkel is a global company that develops, assembles, and markets innovative consumer products. Henkel (Manco) is headquartered on Just Imagine Drive in Avon, Ohio, with a distribution center in Hickory, North Carolina.
1-15-08: Henkel sells Avon facility
3-15-08: Henkel employees moving to Westlake
4-3-08: Henkel sues Najafi
3-14-04: Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival
2-14-03: From Avon to Iraq, with Duck Tape
3-13-01: A "Duck Tape" Wedding
EZ-Tear Tape for Angelic Sculptures
"Duck" Tape at the Ig Nobel Awards
For Further Information: www.careerboard.com/profiles/manco/
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NEWS ARTICLE from The Chronicle-Telegram, 1-15-08,
``Henkel sells Avon facility
AVON -- The Henkel Corp., the city's largest employer with 650 workers, is being sold to a Phoenix company that will purchase the facility along with Henkel's Duck, Painter's Mate Green and Easy Liner brand of do-it-yourself adhesives and household products.
Innovative Brands Holdings announced the acquisition Monday in a news release saying the sale is expected to close within 60 days.
Innovation Brands is owned by the Phoenix-based private investment firm Najafi Cos. It focuses on acquiring, repositioning and growing solid consumer brands that no longer fit the strategic direction of larger corporations into long-term sustainable assets, the news release said.
"We're thrilled that these established and high-quality brands will join our family of products, and are looking forward to nurturing their growth in the marketplace over the next several years," said Innovative Brands Chief Executive Officer and Najafi Partner, Peter Woog. Henkel's Avon location produces the DIY brands.
The facility on Just Imagine Drive underwent a major expansion less than two years ago that added 229,000 square feet to its existing building ...
Locally, Henkel served as the corporate sponsors to the annual Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival since its inception. For four years, the extravaganza held over a weekend in June has included a parade, arts and crafts show, kids activities, and of course lots of colorful and inventive duct tape creations ...''
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NEWS ARTICLE from The Morning Journal, 1-15-08, by SCOT ALLYN, Morning Journal Writer
``AVON -- A Phoenix-based company has announced plans to acquire Avon's Henkel Corp. products -- Duck and Painter's Mate Green tapes and Easy Liner shelf covers -- and its building on Just Imagine Drive [Chester Road].
Innovative Brands Holdings LLC, owned by the Najafi Cos. investment firm, expects to close on the deal in 60 days, according to Jerry Pence, a partner at the Najafi Cos. The Innovative Brands will also acquire Henkel Consumer Adhesive's 568,000-square-foot Avon headquarters as part of the deal. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.
Of the 660 employees who work at the Henkel facility in Avon, about 350 [660 - 350 = 310 jobs gone] will stay to continue producing the acquired brands, according to Cindy Demers, vice president of corporate communications for Henkel Corp.
The rest will leave to work for Henkel, which will continue to own and market Pritt gluesticks and correction rollers, LocTite thread sealants, LePage glues, Pro-Series construction adhesives and Polyseamseal bath and kitchen sealants, which had been distributed from the Avon location, Demers said ...
Pence said the Henkel brands being acquired will function as sister companies to Innovative's Pert and Sure brands. ''We are quite excited about this,'' he said. Pence said Innovative brands started working on the Henkel acquisition in the latter half of 2007.''
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NEWS ARTICLE from The Plain Dealer, 1-15-08, by Frank Bentayou, Plain Dealer Reporter
``Henkel Corp. said Monday [1-14-08] that it is selling its Duck Tape and other well-known adhesive brands as well as its offices and plant in Avon to an Arizona investment company.
Innovative Brands Holdings LLC of Phoenix signed an agreement to buy the facility and the consumer products made or packaged there and expects to close on the deal by mid-March.
Both Henkel and Innovative Brands said they expected no loss of local jobs as a result of the deal. More than 650 now work at the Avon facility. Neither company disclosed the terms of the sale.
Aside from gaining Henkel's familiar Duck brand tape, which workers package in Avon, Innovative will take control of Painter's Mate Green masking tape and Easy Liner shelf-lining product, all brands sold in retail stores.
Henkel is not parting with its industrial and professional sealing products, including the Pritt adhesives, Loctite, LePage (glues and sealants sold widely in Canada) and Poly Seam construction tape brands, according to spokeswoman Cindy Demers in New York. More than 300 Avon employees connected to those products will continue to work for Henkel, whose headquarters is in Duesseldorf, Germany, Demers said. Local management will lease space temporarily in the Avon plant and continue working there "until we find a suitable site to move them to," she said.
Demers said Henkel had no plans to move its remaining local jobs to a location outside the Cleveland area. "We'll probably be looking mostly right around Avon," she said ...
Contacted at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., Najafi partner Jerry Pence said the Henkel brands "seem an excellent fit with our strategic plan. We're looking for these products that have great brand equity -- large corporations that might not be giving them the attention they need to realize their potential." ...
When Henkel finds a home for the administrative and production staff associated with its industrial adhesive products, Pence said, his company wants to "move toward using that Avon facility fully," perhaps increasing employment beyond the 350 he said will become Innovative employees ...
Henkel bought Manco Inc. and its adhesives brands in 1998. Manco's chief executive, Jack Kahl, had developed the Duck all-purpose tape as an almost iconic brand among America's do-it-yourself home-improvement types.
After Kahl sold Manco, pocketing more than $115 million, he was implicated in an insider-trading case. In 2005, his testimony helped prosecutors convict Ohio State University marketing professor Roger Blackwell of having a role in improper stock trading. Kahl received immunity for testifying.''
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NEWS ARTICLE from The Plain Dealer, 3-15-08
``Henkel employees moving to Westlake
AVON -- Henkel Corp. plans to move 100 to 200 employees from Avon to Westlake as part of the company's sell-off of some adhesive brands and a local plant to Innovative Brands Holdings LLC of Phoenix. This week, Westlake planning officials approved a request for renovation of a building at 801 Canterbury Road. Henkel could occupy approximately 30,000 square feet there, said Bob Parry, Westlake's director of planning and economic development.
Company spokeswoman Cindy Demers said that Henkel's Avon employees will be relocating "somewhere in the area" and that the move could take place before the end of the year.
Innovative Brands is buying Duck Tape and other well-known Henkel adhesive brands, along with the Avon facility where the products are made and packaged. Employees who work with those products will stay in Avon ...''
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: fbentayou@plaind.com
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BUSINESS DIARY from The Plain Dealer, 4-2-08
[Henkel sues Najafi]
``Henkel KGaA filed suit to force a unit of Najafi Cos. to complete the $127.5 million buyout of Henkel's consumer-adhesives business. Innovative Brands Holdings agreed to the purchase in December and is unfairly delaying it, Henkel said in a lawsuit made public Tuesday in Delaware Chancery Court in Wilmington, Bloomberg News reported.
Najafi is a Phoenix-based private-equity firm. Henkel, based in Dusseldorf, Germany, makes chemical products. Henkel's lawyers contend Najafi demanded a cut in the tape unit's purchase price.
The Plain Dealer reported March 15 [2008] that Henkel planned to move 100 to 200 employees from Avon to Westlake as part of the sell-off. No details were available Tuesday [4-1-08] on how the lawsuit might affect those plans.''
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