Elisman liked what he saw here. Typically, company leaders hear plenty of questions from employees when they visit work sites, he said. But when he visited the Kettering offices, that wasn’t necessarily the case.
“To me, it’s a signal that people are comfortable,” Elisman said.
It’s “anecdotal evidence” that Kettering employees feel secure with ACCO Brands, he believes. “When people have concerns, they ask lots of questions. We don’t have lots of questions.”
Workers at the Kettering division are part of a lineage that stretches back decades. What today is a corporate division was once a large local employer, a corporate headquarters and the namesake of a downtown Dayton tower. That story began to change in 2002, when what was Mead Corp. merged with Westvaco. The headquarters of what became MeadWestvaco was moved from Dayton, although the Mead name continued to be printed on many notebooks, binders and other products.
In November 2011, after about six months of talks, MeadWestvaco publicly announced that it was spinning off its Mead consumer and office products division to Lincolnshire, Ill.-based ACCO Brands in a deal eventually said to be worth $998 million. The merger became complete in May.
“It’s a great deal,” Elisman said with a smile.
The deal was indeed “great” for ACCO, company leaders and industry-watchers said. Shares of ACCO (NYSE: ACCO) climbed 26 percent to $8.80 on the day of the announcement. Capturing Mead gave the company greater international reach, especially in Brazil and Canada, and added Five Star school supplies, Trapper notebooks, as well as calendars and other products to ACCO’s array of brands.
That overall sense of history isn’t lost on Dayton-area Mead employees, Elisman said.
“We have a very experienced and seasoned workforce here, including workers who have been here many, many years,” he said. “Certainly, they have a good understanding of the Mead company and its founding many years ago.”
ACCO, founded more than a century ago, has its own sense of history, Elisman said.
“There’s a great history, great combined history and legacy between the two companies,” Elisman said. “But I think what people are most excited about is our future.”
The future is what ACCO leaders had in mind when they acquired the Mead name. Before the merger, ACCO was already known for the Swingline stapler, Quartet easels, Kensington iPad accessories and more.
“We were in a very similar business to the legacy Mead business,” said Rich Nelson, an ACCO spokesman. “I think that while they were owned by MeadWestvaco, there was a sense that they (the Mead division) were almost a step-child.”
MeadWestvaco was and is involved in such diverse areas as packaging, chemicals, land management and more. In 2005, MeadWestvaco agreed to sell its paper business to focus on packaging.
Added Nelson, “Now, we (ACCO and Mead) all do the same thing.”
Combined, the two companies are close to $2 billion in annual revenue. About half of that revenue is in the United States and half is international. The newly “consumer-centric” company has a strong presence in “emerging markets,” like Brazil and Mexico, Elisman said.
“And we have great brands,” he added. “From a legacy ACCO perspective, we are very excited about having brands like Mead and Five Star.”
So many have grown up with those products, Trapper Keeper binders, At-A-Glance calendars and more. “We know them well,” Elisman said. “We trust them. We believe in them, and it’s wonderful that they’re part of our company.”
But the merger goes beyond brands. Elisman said a chief attraction was the people behind Mead. The Kettering site employs professionals in consumer marketing, business administration, online and retail sales, consumer support and sales management, among other areas.
“We are very impressed with the people, both the management team and the rank and file,” Elisman said. He said he hopes to increase the headcount in Kettering, most likely in marketing.
ACCO Brands acquired not only the Kettering facility, but also plants in Sidney, N.Y. and Alexandria, Pa., as well as facilities in Ontario, Canada, and Bauru, Brazil. In all, the merger gave ACCO about 2,500 new employees, with 250 in Kettering.
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