Everett paper firm is sold
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, July 13, 2004
EVERETT – A Tennessee-based office products firm has purchased the owner of Everett Pad &Paper Co and will continue its operations, officials said Tuesday.
Guy Brown Products of Brentwood, Tenn., confirmed Tuesday it has purchased the Everett company along with DiversaFile of Arlington, Texas. Everett Pad and Paper, which converts paper into office, school and art products, became a division of DiversaFile in 2001.
Terms of the transaction between the privately held companies and their owners were not released.
Under Guy Brown’s ownership, the two companies have been renamed DiversaFile Everett. Bob King, who joined Everett Pad &Paper about five years ago, has been retained as president of the division.
The Everett manufacturing plant on 36th Street will continue to operate, as will the Texas plant and a distribution center in Pennsylvania. All employees, including between 90 and 100 in Everett, have kept their jobs, Guy Brown executives said.
Founded in 1997, Guy Brown manufactures recycled toner cartridges for laser printers and distributes those and other office products nationwide. The company has been trying to expand its presence in the industry, said its chief executive officer, Ashoke “Bappa” Mukherji.
“It has been and continues to be a strategic imperative for us to expand our product offering and find new ways to deliver value to our customers,” he said in a statement about the acquisition. “We believe that this is the first step of many.”
Everett Pad &Paper was founded in Everett in 1973 by Richard Kenna, who started by purchasing equipment from the Everett’s closed Simpson Lee mill. In 1999, Auburn-based Convertech bought Everett Pad and then sold it to DiversaFile’s owner two years later.
Since then, Everett and DiversaFile have manufactured a range of paper products, including legal pads, spiral-bound notebooks and file folders.
Guy Brown’s toner cartridges are sold to a number of large customers and are distributed nationally with the help of distributors such as OfficeMax and Office Depot, said company spokeswoman Tera Vazquez. Earlier this year, Guy Brown was selected to supply recycled toner cartridges for all of the Boeing Co.’s U.S. operations.
After buying DiversaFile Everett, Guy Brown is one of the largest minority-owned businesses in the industry, according to the company.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
