BUSINESS MEMO: SPARTECH REPURCHASE

The Spartech Corporation Board of Directors has authorized the repurchase of up to one million additional shares of the company's outstanding common shares.

The company will repurchase the stock from time-to-time in the open market, depending on market conditions over the next two years, said Bradley B. Buechler, Spartech president and CEO.

Spartech currently has 26.5 million shares of common stock outstanding. The additional purchase would represent approximately 4 percent of today's outstanding shares. This program follows a similar effort initiated in December of 1995, when 800,000 shares were repurchased,

The St. Louis-based company, which has two large operations in Cape Girardeau -- Spartech Plastics, 2500 Spartech Drive, and Spartech Compounding on Nash Road -- is a producer of engineer thermoplastic materials and polymeric compounds.

Earlier this month, Spartech announced record fiscal 1997 sales of $502,7 million and net earnings of $25.5 million, or 91 cents per fully diluted share.