The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 44, October 16, 2005, Article 9

CRANE BEP PAPER CONTRACT CHALLENGER

Thanks to Chick Ambrass for reminding me about this article
from this morning's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It's about a
Pennsylvania paper company hoping to challenge Crane &
Co. as a supplier of paper to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving
& Printing:

"A small Blair County town, known for the sonorous spring
that runs through it, might soon become the new birthplace
of American money.

But it's just as likely that Roaring Spring, tucked in a limestone
valley south of Altoona, will find that history remains on someone
else's side.

Roaring Spring, the locals say, is home to a subterranean lake,
which gives rise to the spring for which the town is named.
Throughout the town's history, the spring has powered mills to
grind grain and to make paper, and there are two paper mills
now, run by Roaring Spring Paper Products and Appleton
Papers Inc.

It's Appleton, headquartered in Wisconsin, that wants to take
a crack at making money -- or at least the paper it's printed on.

"It is something that we would like to explore," said Bill Van
Den Brandt, Appleton spokesman."

"Fulfilling one of the oldest government contracts, Crane & Co.
has been shipping its special mix of nonwood-based paper,
about a quarter linen and three-quarters cotton, to Uncle Sam
since 1879.

Appleton hopes to get in on the action, but to do so, it will have
to rewrite a unique American business story and reverse more
than 230 years of U.S. history."

"While the Crane & Co. federal currency contract dates to only
1879, the company actually has been making money, so to speak,
since 1775, when Stephen Crane, father of company founder
Zenas Crane, sold paper to an engraver named Paul Revere.
On it, according to company lore, Revere printed some of the
earliest paper money in the American colonies."

"Appleton's behind-the-scenes play for the currency job, or for
at least a portion of it, marks a rare challenge to the Crane Co.'s
multigenerational stranglehold on the contract."

"Crane's contract with the feds runs through July 2006. Last
month, the federal government released an RFP -- request
for proposal -- for the next paper manufacturing contract,
which would run through 2012.

The RFP allows the winners a two-year window to install
production equipment. The Roaring Spring Appleton plant
would need to invest $70 million in new equipment to handle
the contract."

To read the complete story, see: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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