Reynolds Foil

Five out of ten U. S. citizens probably associate the name Reynolds with Camel cigarets, Prince Albert tobacco or Torch-singer Libby Holman. Nevertheless, in the land where containers are often more important than their contents, Reynolds Metals Co. is a major industrial name. World's largest maker of tin and other metal foils, the company was founded by Richard Samuel Reynolds, nephew of Winston-Salem's late Tobaccoman Richard Joshua Reynolds. Indeed, Nephew Richard is supposed to have persuaded R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to concentrate on Camels before he struck out for himself in 1912.

After a turn at making gunpowder canisters during the War, Nephew Richard organized U. S. Foil Co. to supply tin foil to the tobacco industry, with his family's orders as a logical backlog. By the time Libby Holman married his first cousin, Nephew Richard had branched into thermostats and Eskimo Pies and Reynolds Metals had succeeded to the business of U. S. Foil. Today Reynolds Metals is a $12,000,000 corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange but U. S. Foil, now simply a holding company, owns about 55% of its stock and also controls Eskimo Pie Corp. President of all three is Richard Samuel Reynolds, a plump, confident, sales-minded executive of 53 whose only real diversion is composing privately-printed verses while shaving.

Last week Reynolds Metals joined the short list of U. S. corporations which in the past five years have been not only able but willing to raise new capital for expansion. It marketed a $5,000,000 issue of preferred stock. "We have a number of new developments which might surpass the volume of our metallic foil business," President Reynolds declared. "One of three new products alone could possibly . . . require as much capital as we are now raising."

Reynolds Metals has long since outgrown its dependence on the tobacco industry: only about 30% of its business is in that field. Specializing in the art of packaging, it now makes anything from wine caps to book jackets, from ham wrappers to ginger ale labels, from candy box covers to containers for permanent wave pads. Lately Reynolds has added building materials, and it is in that division that the company is presumably about to expand. Chief building product is aluminum foil insulation, which because of its shiny finish minimizes transfer of heat by radiation. Most building insulation simply reduces heat transfer through conduction and convection. Another important Reynolds building product is an ingenious prefabricated lathing, sold with or without a foil backing.

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