BLAIR PRODUCTS ARE FOUND NATIONWIDE

SCOTT CITY -- Next time you purchase a movie video, there's a good chance the vinyl clamshell the videocassette comes in was manufactured by Blair Industries Inc. of Scott City.

The firm manufactures various vinyl and plastic products, including video cassette cases, vinyl envelopes, audio cassette albums, diskette albums, binders, software packaging and other custom vinyl packaging.

Blair Industries is Scott City's largest employer. William Dixon, president and chief executive officer of the firm since he and a group of investors acquired the company in May 1987, said the firm has grown from 26 employees when it was founded in 1979 to 250 employees. The company moved to Scott City from Chicago 13 years ago. The corporate headquarters is in Scott City.

Since moving to Scott City, Blair Industries has undergone several expansions. It now operates in three production facilities in Scott City totaling more than 100,000 square feet. The company also has a 50,000-square-foot building on Sheridan Drive in Cape Girardeau. The company employs 50 people at the Cape Girardeau plant.

Although the firm manufactures a large number of plastic and vinyl products, it may be best known for the videocassette cases or shells it manufactures for Hollywood.

In 1987 Blair Industries manufactured about five million of the videocassette shells for Walt Disney Home Video Co. for its "Lady and the Tramp" classic. In addition to the vinyl cases, Blair also printed the four-color insert that advertises the film.

Other Disney jobs included vinyl covers for "Cinderella" in 1988. That job and a Wal Mart five-pack video case job kept the night lights burning at Blair's video case production facility in Cape Girardeau.

Dixon said the latest job for the Disney company is manufacturing of vinyl cases for Disney's videocassette of "Aladdin," a record-breaker in sales for Disney. Blair has made millions of the cases for the "Aladdin" cassette.

More recently Warner Home Video, MCA, and Hemdale Home Video have started using the Blair vinyl video clamshells for their children's line of videos.

Blair also manufactures videocassette cases, single and multipacks, for the consumer market. In 1988 the company concluded an agreement with Wal Mart to manufacture the cases for sale in Wal Mart stores.

"We manufacture a lot of the educational video packaging for General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. We also make a lot of the hard-plastic albums for storing audio cassettes produced by motivational and religious organization," said Dixon.

"One of our major features is the Blair stock items. These are items that we keep in stock for next-day delivery, including a complete line of plastic audio and video cassette album covers."

Blair also manufactures a plastic container package for holding video and audio cassettes and the accompanying literature for safety training programs. It also makes custom four-color, three-ring binders to hold Hewlett-Packard packaged documentation materials.

Blair's growth during the past eight years is no accident. Said Dixon, "One of the key decisions after we purchased the company was to invest in state-of-the-art automation, which has enabled us to remain competitive with U.S. and foreign manufacturers."

Since 1987 Blair has acquired four major pieces of automated equipment, the latest at a cost in excess of $600,000. It has six robotic stations capable of producing 80 units per minute.

"One of the many strengths of Blair is our ability to build custom products in small quantities at an acceptable unit cost to our customers," Dixon said. "Our company's tool-and-die and design department performs this task in an excellent fashion. Blair Industries holds numerous patents on products and manufacturing equipment.

"While the number of employees has grown to 250, our sales per employee has doubled. This enables us to be profitable, reduce a heavy debt load, and pay wages, bonuses, and better fringe benefits."

Dixon said the company instituted a profit-sharing program three years ago. All contributions are made by the company and every employee shares on an equal basis regardless of their job position.

Dixon said he is proud of the low turnover at the Scott City and Cape Girardeau plants. He said, "Over 45 percent of our employees have 10 or more years of service with the company."

The company takes an active role in the affairs of the community and region. During a recent food drive for the needy, Blair employees contributed 13,651 pounds of food.

Dixon said the future is hard to predict. "One of our biggest customers right now is the Video Professor. The company produces videos that provide instruction on how to use various computer software programs. Two years ago it was nothing, but thanks to the TV `infomercials' and the demand for Video Professor tapes, it is now a half-million dollar account for Blair Industries."