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Griffon Corporation
Griffon Corporation is a multinational conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It operates as a diversified management and holding company. The company has four subsidiaries: Ames True Temper, ClosetMaid, Clopay Building Products, and CornellCookson. Griffon has been publicly traded since 1961 and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange as a component stock of the S&P SmallCap 600, S&P Composite 1500, and Russell 2000 indices.
In 1959, Long Island businessman Helmuth W. Waldorf – a tool and die maker's apprentice who had immigrated to the United States from Germany to study at Columbia University – founded a small defense electronics company in College Point, Queens named Waldorf Controls Corporation. The company changed its name later that year to Instrument Systems Corporation (ISC). In 1961, ISC issued shares to the public and bolstered its avionics business by acquiring Telephonics Corporation. Established in December 1933, Telephonics was among a handful of aviation electronics pioneers that formed the nucleus of the aviation and defense industry on Long Island during the mid-20th century. ISC struggled financially in its early years. To reposition the company for future growth, ISC's major stakeholders, including Waldorf and director Lester Avnet, the president of Avnet Electronics Corporation and son of its founder Charles Avnet, turned to a highly regarded former executive at Loral Corporation, Edward Garrett.
Edward Garrett was named chairman and president of ISC in 1964. Following a strategy that had proved successful at Loral, Garrett transformed ISC by closing deficit-ridden plants, seeking civilian markets as well as government research-and-development contracts, and acquiring defense, commercial electronics and manufacturing companies. In 1966, Garrett brought in his son-in-law, Harvey Blau, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, as General Counsel to handle legal matters and transactions. ISC purchased 20 companies in 1968 alone, ranking second in acquisitions nationwide that year, as investor appetite for corporate conglomerates reached its peak. That year, ISC listed its stock on the American Stock Exchange.
ISC's subsidiaries operated plants throughout the United States and Canada producing electronic devices, special purpose trucks, hardware tools, furniture, packaging and building materials. After successfully producing communications systems for the U.S. military, Telephonics won multi-year contracts to produce multiplex passenger entertainment systems for the new Boeing 747 and Lockheed L-1011 wide-body airplanes.
Net sales increased from $5.7 million in 1964 to $165.2 million in 1970 and total assets from $4.1 million to $120.4 million in the same period. In 1970, ISC was listed for the first time on the Fortune 500 list of America's largest companies. As the 1970s progressed, the company was negatively impacted by decreased defense spending as the Vietnam War ended, and by general economic uncertainty. The first and second oil crises as well as the recessions of 1973–1975 and the early 1980s further diminished ISC's prospects. As a result of these macroeconomic developments and the divestiture of underperforming divisions, ISC's revenues fell from $233.25 million in 1974 to $104.3 million in 1982 – the year Garrett died at age 64.
Following Edward Garrett's death in 1982, Blau was named chairman of the board and CEO. Blau accelerated Garrett's divestiture and cost-cutting plan and sold the company's window, lighting and metal casting operations. The company also raised capital via a rights offering to existing shareholders, boosting shareholder equity from $4.6 million to $33.7 million and reducing long-term debt. ISC's subsidiaries also successfully secured new business. Telephonics received orders to develop components for the central integrated test system of Rockwell International's B-1B bomber, communications and radio control systems for Lockheed S-3A aircraft and Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk LAMPS MK III helicopters, and a new advanced audio communications system for NASA's Space Shuttle orbiter spaceplane.
In addition to strengthening ISC's existing lines of business, Blau diversified revenues by acquiring companies in unrelated industries. In 1984, ISC acquired troubled clothing manufacturer Oneita Knitting Mills, Inc., for $14 million. Blau and his team renamed the company Oneita Industries, restructured its finances, and grew it to the country's third-largest maker of specialty T-shirts, tripling sales to $300 million within a few years. ISC took Oneita public in 1988, selling 34% of shares for about $9 million, and had divested the remainder of the company by 1993.
The purchase of Clopay Corporation in 1986 for $37 million represented ISC's most successful diversification effort under Blau. Founded as a paper wholesaler in 1859, this Cincinnati-based company started to produce window coverings during World War II and subsequently changed its name to Clopay, a portmanteau of "cloth and paper." Clopay entered the plastic film and garage door business in 1952 and 1966, respectively. It grew in the 1990s and 2000s, becoming a leading manufacturer of residential garage doors in the United States and one of the suppliers of plastic films for diapers, surgical gowns, and drapes. In 1991, Clopay accounted for 70% of ISC's $50 million operating income.
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Griffon Corporation
Griffon Corporation is a multinational conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It operates as a diversified management and holding company. The company has four subsidiaries: Ames True Temper, ClosetMaid, Clopay Building Products, and CornellCookson. Griffon has been publicly traded since 1961 and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange as a component stock of the S&P SmallCap 600, S&P Composite 1500, and Russell 2000 indices.
In 1959, Long Island businessman Helmuth W. Waldorf – a tool and die maker's apprentice who had immigrated to the United States from Germany to study at Columbia University – founded a small defense electronics company in College Point, Queens named Waldorf Controls Corporation. The company changed its name later that year to Instrument Systems Corporation (ISC). In 1961, ISC issued shares to the public and bolstered its avionics business by acquiring Telephonics Corporation. Established in December 1933, Telephonics was among a handful of aviation electronics pioneers that formed the nucleus of the aviation and defense industry on Long Island during the mid-20th century. ISC struggled financially in its early years. To reposition the company for future growth, ISC's major stakeholders, including Waldorf and director Lester Avnet, the president of Avnet Electronics Corporation and son of its founder Charles Avnet, turned to a highly regarded former executive at Loral Corporation, Edward Garrett.
Edward Garrett was named chairman and president of ISC in 1964. Following a strategy that had proved successful at Loral, Garrett transformed ISC by closing deficit-ridden plants, seeking civilian markets as well as government research-and-development contracts, and acquiring defense, commercial electronics and manufacturing companies. In 1966, Garrett brought in his son-in-law, Harvey Blau, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, as General Counsel to handle legal matters and transactions. ISC purchased 20 companies in 1968 alone, ranking second in acquisitions nationwide that year, as investor appetite for corporate conglomerates reached its peak. That year, ISC listed its stock on the American Stock Exchange.
ISC's subsidiaries operated plants throughout the United States and Canada producing electronic devices, special purpose trucks, hardware tools, furniture, packaging and building materials. After successfully producing communications systems for the U.S. military, Telephonics won multi-year contracts to produce multiplex passenger entertainment systems for the new Boeing 747 and Lockheed L-1011 wide-body airplanes.
Net sales increased from $5.7 million in 1964 to $165.2 million in 1970 and total assets from $4.1 million to $120.4 million in the same period. In 1970, ISC was listed for the first time on the Fortune 500 list of America's largest companies. As the 1970s progressed, the company was negatively impacted by decreased defense spending as the Vietnam War ended, and by general economic uncertainty. The first and second oil crises as well as the recessions of 1973–1975 and the early 1980s further diminished ISC's prospects. As a result of these macroeconomic developments and the divestiture of underperforming divisions, ISC's revenues fell from $233.25 million in 1974 to $104.3 million in 1982 – the year Garrett died at age 64.
Following Edward Garrett's death in 1982, Blau was named chairman of the board and CEO. Blau accelerated Garrett's divestiture and cost-cutting plan and sold the company's window, lighting and metal casting operations. The company also raised capital via a rights offering to existing shareholders, boosting shareholder equity from $4.6 million to $33.7 million and reducing long-term debt. ISC's subsidiaries also successfully secured new business. Telephonics received orders to develop components for the central integrated test system of Rockwell International's B-1B bomber, communications and radio control systems for Lockheed S-3A aircraft and Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk LAMPS MK III helicopters, and a new advanced audio communications system for NASA's Space Shuttle orbiter spaceplane.
In addition to strengthening ISC's existing lines of business, Blau diversified revenues by acquiring companies in unrelated industries. In 1984, ISC acquired troubled clothing manufacturer Oneita Knitting Mills, Inc., for $14 million. Blau and his team renamed the company Oneita Industries, restructured its finances, and grew it to the country's third-largest maker of specialty T-shirts, tripling sales to $300 million within a few years. ISC took Oneita public in 1988, selling 34% of shares for about $9 million, and had divested the remainder of the company by 1993.
The purchase of Clopay Corporation in 1986 for $37 million represented ISC's most successful diversification effort under Blau. Founded as a paper wholesaler in 1859, this Cincinnati-based company started to produce window coverings during World War II and subsequently changed its name to Clopay, a portmanteau of "cloth and paper." Clopay entered the plastic film and garage door business in 1952 and 1966, respectively. It grew in the 1990s and 2000s, becoming a leading manufacturer of residential garage doors in the United States and one of the suppliers of plastic films for diapers, surgical gowns, and drapes. In 1991, Clopay accounted for 70% of ISC's $50 million operating income.