BUSINESS MEMO: SPARTECH WILL BUY COMPANY

Spartech Corp., a manufacturer of engineered thermoplastic materials and polymeric compounds, has agreed to buy Portage (Wis.) Industries Corp.

"This merger is of strategic importance in further strengthening Spartech's national extruded sheet and rollstock group," said Bradley B. Buechler, president and chief executive of Spartech. The Portage extruded sheet and rollstock plant will operate as a Spartech Plastics facility in the future, expanding the group to 11 extrusion plants currently servicing about 30 percent of the $1 billion industry.

Following completion of the merger, Beuchler said the company will produce annually more than 500 million pounds in its two divisions -- extruded sheet and rollstock (375 million) and merchant compounding (130 million) -- with sale projection over the next year of about $400 million.

The company has 14 facilities nationwide, including two at Cape Girardeau -- Spartech Plastics, 2500 Spartech Drive, and Spartech Compounding on Nash Road.