Anchor Hocking glass sold for $332 million

A Monaca-based glass maker didn't fit into Newell Rubbermaid Inc.'s restructuring plan and is being sold to an Ohio company for $332 million.

Anchor Hocking Specialty Glass Co. will become a subsidiary of Libbey Inc., a Toledo, Ohio-based maker of glass tableware and dinnerware for the food service, industrial and retail markets. Libbey had net sales of $442 million in 2000.

Anchor Hocking, which employs 700 at its factory in Monaca, and another 1,200 in a Lancaster, Ohio, facility, had net sales of $215 million in the 12 months ended March 31.

Libbey Chairman John Meier said in a conference call yesterday that the transaction could take 60 days or more to complete.

'It is our goal to build a business that will run five factories - the two Anchor plants and three Libby plants,' he said.

He said it is too early in the process to determine if any hourly job reductions will occur. He said some overlapping management jobs both in Toledo and in Monaca will be consolidated. There may be some job reductions through attrition, but he added, 'There is not going to be a wholesale retrenchment.'

Acquired by Newell Rubbermaid in 1987, Anchor Hocking produces glass vases, votives, bakeware, ovenware and beverage containers. The company traces its history back to 1880 when Andrew Howard founded the Phoenix Glass Co. in Monaca.

Libbey said it received financing commitments from Bank of America, Bank One and Bear Stearns & Co. to complete the transaction, in addition to re-financing its existing debt through a new $625 million bank facility.

The Anchor purchase continues a recent string of acquisitions by Libbey since it was spun out of Toledo-based Owens-Illinois Inc. in a 1993 initial public stock offering. Libbey acquired the Syracuse China Co., a maker of ceramic dinnerware for restaurants, in 1995. In 1997, it bought World Tableware, a supplier of stainless steel flatware and buffet equipment. The company's Web site says it employs more than 4,000 in the United States and Canada.

Mark Eichhorn, president of Anchor Hocking, viewed the transaction as positive, since Anchor was unlikely to receive much attention under the Newell Rubbermaid umbrella. 'The management team is excited about being part of a company whose life is glass,' he said.

In the 1930s, Phoenix Glass produced the Seldon Line of sculptured glassware, which is popular today with glass collectors.

Phoenix was bought by Anchor Hocking Corp. in 1970. The Monaca plant was rebuilt after a 1978 fire, the fourth in the company's history.

Newell Rubbermaid is being restructured by Chief Executive Joseph Galli Jr., a New Kensington native hired in January upon the resignation of John McDonough. Galli formerly ran Black & Decker's power tools division. The company makes Rubbermaid containers, Levolor blinds, Wearever cookware and other housewares and had 2000 sales of nearly $7 billion.