| Ocean Spray hires Interim COO
Story updated 9/17/99 - Ocean Spray has announced that Dean A. Mefford has been hired as the interim chief operating officer to work immediately under outgoing Ocean Spray President and CEO Tom Bullock. Mefford, 58, worked for thirty years at Ralston where he advanced from management trainee to a series of top level posts."Given some of the critical supply chain and marketing issues we now face, we are fortunate to have someone of Dean's caliber and background to tighten our focus on the work at hand," said Bullock in a press release. "He has a proven track record of providing vision and leadership to grow existing businesses, start new businesses and turn around under-performing businesses." According to Ocean Spray, Mefford became President and CEO of Viskase, then a subsidiary of Envirodyne, in September of 1994. He replaced F.E. Gustafson, who remained as chairman of Viskase and executive vice president of Envirodyne Industries, its Oak Brook-based parent. Viskase is a supplier of food packaging materials. Gustafson went on to become President and CEO of the entire corporation, a position he continues to hold. Mefford came aboard following the filing of a Chapter 11 by the parent company in 1993. (ed. note: I am not clear as to when Mefford left Viskase; but he was there at least until 1997.) Envirodyne Industries, Inc. changed its name to Viskase on, Sept. 8, 1998. It is traded on the Nasdaq SmallCap market under the trading symbol “VCIC”. Viskase is the world's leading supplier of cellulosic casings and a major producer of specialty plastic films. These packaging products and solutions serve the packaging needs for processed meats, fresh red meats, poultry, foodservice, cheese and bakery sectors of the food industry. In 1997 Enrivodyne suffered a downward spiral. It sold off a number of its units, including Clear Shield National, Inc. to Solo Cup Co., for $140 million and its Sandusky Plastics subsidiary. The corporation was seeking a buyer, but had a $524.1 million debt load. There was an attempted leveraged buyout by Heico Holdings, Inc., which failed. A 1997 law suit resulted in an $11 million settlement against D.P. Kelly & Associates and Salomon Brothers. It had been alleged by the plaintiff, the Atra Group, that they had been deceived about the prospects of Environdyne. Donald P Kelly and Salomon led the $840 mil buyout of Envirodyne, which later filed for bankruptcy. Prior to the buyout, Artra had a 26.8% interest in Envirodyne. In 1997, revenues dipped 6% to $612.9 million, while the loss of $9.6 million, or 66 cents a share, represented only a slight improvement over the 1996 loss of $13.7 million, or 96 cents a share. They suffered a loss of $17.6 million, compared with a year-earlier loss of $7.5 million. Sales in the first six months were down 16% to $105.4 million. The company also had to lay off 215 employees in its Chicago plant in 1998. In a 1996 trial in Chicago, a jury found that American National had infringed on Viskase's patents for casings and awarded $102.4 million in compensatory damages. Eventually on appeal in 1998, Viskase was awarded damages from American National Can Co. of Chicago. In U.S. District Court in Chicago, a jury found that American National's manufacture and sale of heat-shrinkable film -- used for fresh meat, processed meat and poultry applications -- infringed Viskase's patents. The judgement was almost twice the stock value of Viskase. April 1999 Press Release on the state of the company Archived news articles about Viskase from Hoovers S.E.C. Filings (10K's are the most informative) for Envirodyne/Viskase
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