Apple merging with Flexible Packaging

Apple is doubling its size by adding North American Film Co. - better known as Nafco - of Spartanburg, S.C., and Tiffany Extruders and Power Plastics, both of Paterson, to its lineup. The combined firm, Apple Plastics International, will employ 200 and have annual sales of about $60 million, about 85 percent of which will come from polyethylene-based garment bags.

Transaction costs were not disclosed. Flexible, an investment group that acquired the three properties last year, will retain a stake in the new business, which will retain the Apple name. Flexible management will not be involved in Apple's day-to-day operations.

The deal will enable Apple to grow more rapidly and will yield sizable savings by reducing Apple's freight and shipping costs to the East Coast, according to Apple President Gary Duboff.

``We had been looking for an East Coast presence for several years,'' Duboff said in a Nov. 29 telephone interview. ``This is an opportunity for us to merge with an East Coast competitor.

``We were interested in Flexible because their quality and customer service were similar to ours. Everybody wins except our competitors.''

The Flexible sites now will add Apple's line of produce bags for supermarkets to their product mix. Duboff said Apple will add film extrusion and bag-making capacity at the Flexible sites in the near future.

The transaction already has closed, according to Duboff.

Duboff also owns 50 percent of Orange Plastics, a Compton, Calif.-based film producer with annual sales of about $70 million. Orange split from Apple early last year.