Day International, Inc.

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Day International, Inc.

130 West Second Street
Dayton, Ohio 45402
U.S.A.
Telephone: (937) 224-4000
Toll Free: (800) 877-8187
Fax: (937) 226-1855
Web site: http://www.dayintl.com

Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Day International Group, Inc.
Incorporated: 1905 as Dayton Rubber Manufacturing Company
Employees: 1,465
Sales: $363.3 million (2005)
NAIC: 333293 Printing Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing; 313210 Broadwoven Fabric Mills; 323122 Prepress Services; 326299 All Other Rubber Product Manufacturing

Day International, Inc., is a leading global supplier of consumable products for the printing industry, including printing blankets and chemicals. Its original parent company, formed to make garden hoses and rings for sealing glass jars, soon began operating as the Dayton Tire & Rubber Company, expanding its production capabilities to include printing equipment components and automobile tires. Renamed Dayco Corporation in 1960, it sold its tire business to Firestone the next year. Automotive hoses and belts were divested in 1986, whereupon the company took its current name of Day International.

Day International has continued to make acquisitions around its core strength in printing products while exiting a textile products business after just a few years. The company operates facilities in about one dozen countries; the main ones are in Dundee, Scotland; Ahaus, Germany; and Manchester, England. Day International, Inc.'s holding company, Day International Group, Inc., is publicly listed; however, for the most part, all the common stock is owned by affiliates of GSC Partners and SG Capital Partners LLC.

DAYTON ORIGINS

Day International, Inc., was formed in Ohio in 1905 as the Dayton Rubber Manufacturing Company. Its first products were garden hoses, rings for sealing glass fruit jars, and other natural rubber items.

Within a few years, the company was making airless tires under the Dayton brand. The firm was renamed the Dayton Tire & Rubber Company in 1910. Advertising of the 1920s describes Dayton's "large, well-financed, efficiently organized factory whose business it is to build the best tire in the world."

The company progressed into manufacturing other rubber components; among many innovations claimed was the first automotive fan belt. After collaborating with du Pont for a few years, in 1933 Dayton produced the first printing roller made of synthetic rubber. The new material appeared in automobile tires the next year, and a few years after that in the company's new line of textile equipment.

Dayton acquired the McClaren Rubber Company in 1937. McClaren had produced its own brand of tire and employed 450 people. Its location in Charlotte, North Carolina, gave it convenient access to the textiles used in making tires.

Many different types of rubber products were produced to support the Allies during World War II. During this time, Dayton spent about $5 million on an expansion program, leading to a public offering in 1944. The company reached sales of $20 million in fiscal 1944 and posted a record income of $2.5 million.

NEW DIRECTION AFTER WORLD WAR II

The company's name was shortened to Dayton Rubber Company after the war as the company developed its first printing blankets for offset lithography, sold under the Gold Seal brand. This was the foundation for a line of business that would remain constant though the divestitures of the following decades.

Sales grew rapidly in the late 1940s, reaching $37 million in fiscal 1950 as net profit reached a record $2.2 million. The company spent heavily on facilities as it continued to expand. Annual revenues were $72 million by 1959. A new mechanical rubber products factory opened in Springfield, Missouri, around this time.

The American Latex Products Corporation had been acquired in 1952, having been formed four years earlier by Clowes Montgomery Christie, who built it into the leading U.S. supplier of foam rubber, with sales of $3 million a year. Christie soon became the head of Dayton Rubber.

THE DAYCO YEARS: 1960–86

The company renamed itself Dayco Corporation in 1960 and the next year sold the tire division to Firestone. Dayco's annual revenues reached $100 million within a few years.

Dayco remained committed to the automotive industry. After staving off a 1966 takeover attempt by Allied Products Corporation, the company made an acquisition of its own, buying Allen Industries, Inc., a Detroit supplier of components for car interiors, for $47 million in 1968.

By fiscal 1979, Dayco had annual revenues of $740 million. The company remained exposed to the ups and downs of the auto industry, with transportation-related products accounting for more than one-quarter of business. Other important markets included the construction industry. Dayco was profitable, though its materials costs were affected by the volatile price of oil.

Earnings dwindled in the early 1980s due to a recession, falling from $21 million in fiscal 1979 to $1.6 million in 1982. Dayco's Allen Industries subsidiary, an original equipment manufacturer for the auto industry, lost $5 million.

A NEW DAY IN 1986

In 1986 Dayco sold its automotive hose and belt business to tire manufacturer Armstrong Rubber Company (which was soon renamed Armtek Corporation). Renamed Dayco Products, the divested unit led the U.S. market for industrial and automotive hoses, belts, and couplings with annual revenues of nearly $240 million.

The remaining operations were renamed Day International. The sunbeams in the company's new logo appropriately symbolized a new day. Dennis R. Wolters became CEO, a position he would hold through the company's 100th anniversary.

Day was owned by the M. A. Hanna Company, a larger international specialty chemicals supplier, for several years beginning in 1987. Its sale in 1995 marked the beginning of a decade of growth by acquisition. The investment firm American Industrial Partners, led by former Goodyear chairman Thomas Barrett, bought Day for $200 million through the newly organized Day International Group Inc. Day then had annual revenues of $120 million and plants in North Carolina, Michigan, Scotland, and Mexico. It employed roughly 900 people.

COMPANY PERSPECTIVES

Day International was founded on old fashioned principles. We care about and cater to our customers' needs at every level. We have worked hard to build a reputation for quality and dependability. At Day International, we adhere to our guiding principle, which is that customers are the focus of all we do! The engineered uniformity of Day International blankets can improve job quality and efficiency on your presses. Our offset blankets help you squeeze all of the performance out of your press that its manufacturers intended.

Another offset printing blanket manufacturer, the David M Company, was acquired from Flint Ink Corp. in 1997. David M had been established in 1954; it operated a single plant in Longwood, Florida.

In the midst of an acquisitions spree came a change of ownership for Day itself. Greenwich Street Capital Partners and SG Capital Partners bought the company from American Industrial Partners in early 1998.

In late 1998, Day International bought Rotec Hulsensysteme GmbH, a German producer of flexographic printing sleeves and rollers. Rotec had been formed eight years earlier by Helmut Busshoff and was known for innovation. The product line complemented nicely Day's existing offset lithography business; flexographic printing was typically used in higher volume applications such as magazines and newspapers.

Continuing to diversify, Day bought pressroom chemicals supplier Varn International in 1999. During the same year, the company also acquired the Accotex division of Armstrong, bringing it into the textile products business.

Network Distribution International (NDI) of Rockland, Massachusetts, was acquired in 2003. NDI converted blankets for offset lithography and distributed other printing products.

100TH ANNIVERSARY IN 2005

Day International celebrated a couple of milestones in 2005. The company was 100 years old and had been independent again for ten years. The Day brand was reintroduced during the year. At this time, Day had about 1,500 employees, most of them employed outside Dayton at one of the company's 32 facilities in 15 countries. With sales of about $360 million a year, Day was typically at the top of the printing blanket and printing chemical markets.

The Kompac Division, which made dampening systems, was sold in 2006. Kompac Technologies, Inc., was the buyer. Day also exited its textile products business, selling the operation to affiliates of Saurer AG of Switzerland. The unit's plants in Greenville, South Carolina, and Münster, Germany, accounted for sales of $45 million in 2005.

KEY DATES

1905:: The Dayton Rubber Manufacturing Company is formed.
1910:: The company is renamed the Dayton Tire & Rubber Company.
1933:: Dayton produces first printing roller made of synthetic rubber.
1934:: The company makes its first synthetic rubber automobile tire.
1938:: Textile equipment including rolls, cots, and aprons are added to the company's production.
1945:: Production of offset printing blankets begins.
1946:: The company's name is shortened to Dayton Rubber Company.
1960:: The company becomes Dayco Corporation.
1961:: The tire division is sold to Firestone.
1968:: Automotive supplier Allen Industries is acquired for $47 million.
1986:: Dayco's automotive hose and belt business is sold to Armtek; remaining operations are renamed Day International.
1987:: Dayco is acquired by M. A. Hanna.
1995:: Day International Inc. is spun off as private company.
1997:: The David M Company, manufacturer of offset printing blankets, is acquired.
1998:: German flexographic printing products specialist Rotec International is acquired.
1999:: Pressroom chemicals supplier Varn International is acquired, as is the Accotex division of Armstrong.
2003:: Network Distribution International (NDI) is acquired.
2006:: Kompac Division, Textile Products Groups is sold; U.K. printing blanket manufacturer Duco International is acquired.

Day continued to make acquisitions. In October 2006 it bought Duco International, a U.K.-based printing blanket manufacturer with an extensive presence in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. At this time, the company was building a new research center for its Chemical Products Division in Batavia, Illinois.

Frederick C. Ingram

PRINCIPAL SUBSIDIARIES

Varn International, Inc.; Day International Finance, Inc.; Network Distribution International; Day International (U.K.) Holdings Limited; Day International France S.A.R.L.; Day International de Mexico S.A. de C.V.; Varn Products Company Pty., Ltd. (Australia); Varn Pressroom Products Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia); Varn International (Canada) Limited; R T C do Brasil Ltda. (55%); Day Germany Holdings GmbH.

PRINCIPAL DIVISIONS

Transfer Media; Chemical Products; Flexographic Products.

PRINCIPAL COMPETITORS

Anchor Chemical Company; Kinyosha Printing Company, Ltd.; MacDermid, Incorporated; Polyfibron Technologies, Inc.; Reeves International, Incorporated; Rossini S.p.A.