Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 23:57:48 GMT Server: Apache/1.2.4 Last-Modified: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 20:16:56 GMT ETag: "10286-122f-34203ab8" Content-Length: 4655 Accept-Ranges: bytes Connection: close Content-Type: text/html
Republic Gypsum Company was founded in 1961 by the Simpson family, who had been active in building materials manufacturing in Texas and the Southwest since the late 1880's. The Company was privately owned when it constructed a gypsum wallboard plant in 1964 at Duke, in southwestern Oklahoma, near a large, high-grade gypsum deposit. The plant has operated continuously for 33 years. The current production capacity is approximately 570 million square feet of wallboard per year and, with the previously announced expansion, will approximately double by July, 1998.
The Company mines gypsum from its quarry near the gypsum wallboard manufacturing plant. Raw gypsum is first crushed and then calcined into plaster of Paris. The resulting calcined gypsum is mixed with water and other components to form a slurry, which is then placed between two continuously moving sheets of recycled paperboard to produce gypsum wallboard. The Duke plant presently requires approximately 30,000 tons of recycled paperboard per year when operating at capacity. This will increase to 60,000 tons per year after the expansion is completed. Gypsum wallboard is used in almost all residential and commercial structures for interior walls and ceilings. Because of its fireproofing characteristics, nearly all U.S. and Canadian building codes require its use.
The strategic focus of the Company began shifting to the recycled paperboard industry when the Company, in the early 1980's, sought a long-term, high volume supply source of recycled paperboard, the largest cost component of gypsum wallboard. Management chose to integrate the Company vertically and become a manufacturer of recycled paperboard rather than depend on long-term purchase contracts. In 1983, two paperboard mills at Hutchinson, Kansas, and Commerce City, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, were purchased forming Republic Paperboard Company.
The Company produces recycled paperboard used in manufacturing composite cans, cores, tubes and other packaging products, as well as gypsum wallboard. The papermaking process employs recycled fibers exclusively. Recycled paper is dispersed into individual fibers in solution and cleaned to remove contamination such as plastic and glue, and is then refined to improve fiber condition and strength. The fiber slurry is applied to rotating wire-covered cylinders to form a wet fiber mat. The fiber mat is removed from the rotating cylinders by a continuous felt, pressed to remove water, and dried on a series of hot, steam-heated drums. The finished reels of recycled paperboard are slit into individual roll widths or sheeted per customer requirements and shipped. The Company ships its recycled paperboard products throughout the United States as well as for export.
During 1994, the Company acquired reclaimed paper recycling centers located in Kansas City, Missouri, and Topeka, Kansas. These facilities operate as Republic Recycling Company. These facilities have enabled the Company to achieve further vertical integration of its recycled paperboard manufacturing operations, not unlike the relationship of the paperboard mills and the gypsum quarry to the Duke, Oklahoma wallboard plant. The Company had purchased reclaimed paper from these plants for many years. The purchase of the recycling centers assures the Company's paperboard mills a continuing supply source for a significant portion of their requirements. The Company, in early fiscal 1996, began operations at a paper recycling facility in Denver, Colorado. This facility supplies reclaimed paper to the Company's Commerce City, Colorado recycled paperboard mill. In 1995, Halltown Paperboard Company, another 100% recycled paperboard mill, was acquired. The Company is now primarily a manufacturer of recycled paperboard products with an integrated gypsum wallboard manufacturing operation.
Republic's common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "RGC".