Growing Package

Though husbands may moan over the decline of home cooking in the U.S., the era of the TV dinner has been rich fare for a softspoken, Georgia-born paper salesman named R. Carl ("Hap") Chandler, 41. Chandler heads Standard Packaging, which makes material for trays that can be cooked, bags that can be boiled. Says Chandler happily: "Everything that we make is thrown away."

In his drive for "a totally integrated producer of packaging materials," Chandler has taken Standard Packaging on a whirlwind ride of growth and acquisition, boosted sales from $24 million in 1955 to $64 million in 1958, has picked up ten companies in three years. This week he bought the eleventh: National Metallizing Corp. of Trenton, N.J., which owns a process to coat paper with metal. Chandler is convinced that the new process is cheaper than present methods of laminating foil to paper, sees a big market for his product in wrappings of all kinds, even though competitors are working on similar processes.

Design for Conveniences. A graduate of Atlanta's Emory University ('41), Chandler spent four years in the Navy before going to work in paper production in 1946. He was a sales vice president of Union Bag and a director of 13 companies (including Standard Packaging) when Wall Street Financier Edward Elliott in 1955 asked him to write a report on ailing Crowell-Collier, in which Elliott held a sizeable interest. After recommending that the magazines be killed, Chandler became temporary chairman. When Elliott turned to Standard (he owns about 5% of the stock), he put Chandler in command.

Standard was then a slow-moving manufacturer of milk-bottle tops. Chandler assembled an able young management team, decided to point the company toward "convenience" living and disposable paper products. With a five-year growth map of what the market wanted, Chandler set about buying complementary companies, took in Sterling Products for its paper plates in 1956, Modern Packages for its flexible packaging material. In 1957 he added four box and label makers, last summer merged the Johnston Foil Mfg. Co., which laminated foil to paper. This year Chandler got his biggest acquisition: Eastern Corp. (1957 sales: $25 million), which will give Standard its own source of pulp. With current acquisitions, more than half of Standard's production goes to the food industry, which is where Chandler wants to be.

Map for Growth. For the philosophy behind the acquisitions, Chandler always refers to his "growth map." Says he: "In the next ten years, domestic help will be almost nonexistent, and housewives wash an average of 150 dishes a day. Families are getting bigger, and more wives are working. The growth in convenience foods is going to be terrific. We're just at the beginning of the era." Chandler estimates that packaging in the food industry today is a $6 billion market; by 1965 he expects it to be $9.5 billion.

Expenses of integrating his new companies will slice Standard's earnings to about $1 a share in 1958. In 1959 Chandler expects to do better, though convertible stock, which Standard has issued to buy one company and stock options, could dilute per-share earnings by as much as 35% if converted into common. Chandler expects potential profits from new products to help make up for any dilution. Among them: plastic-coated punch cards that would last longer than present business-machine cards, and paperboard containers for oil. In Chandler's office are six paperboard containers, shaped like milk cartons, which have held oil for a year. Said Chandler: "This company is in the right place at the right time."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.