Blair Industries closes, reopens with new owners

Business Today

Employees of Blair Industries, which has operated plants in Cape Girardeau and Scott City for more than 20 years, were told April 17 that the company was shutting its doors immediately. The 165 employees then learned that new owners would reopen the doors April 22 under a new name -- Blair Packaging -- and were invited to submit applications for employment.

Blair Industries manufactured notebooks and packaging for videocassettes, the latter a dwindling market with the advent of DVDs. At one time it was the nation's largest producer of videocassette packaging.

The new owners are Ron Unterreiner and Herb Graetz, who originally brought the company to Scott City in 1980 and then sold their interest to East Coast investors in 1987. There also is a group of silent investors.

Jerry Van Oostrom, who was president of Blair Industries and was an investor, will not be part of the new company.

The company has offices at 116 Missouri Blvd. in Scott City and at 24 S. Sheridan Drive in Cape Girardeau.

Unterreiner is president. Robert Moser, who was the operations manager for Blair Industries, was rehired as vice president of operations.

Unterreiner said the company hopes to return to the plant's full work force and beyond eventually. The new owners also plan to make changes in the operation.

"We want to expand the line back out to some of the things we made originally," such as plastic page protectors, he said. "They had narrowed it to a media package."