LEE-ROWAN HONORED AT INDUSTRIAL BANQUET

JACKSON -- "I'm Desmond Lee. I'm retired," is the way the honored guest introduced himself Monday night to a group of more than 100 local business leaders and regional politicians present at the Annual Manufacturers' Appreciation Banquet.

The Jackson Industrial Development Company, a coalition of business people, commercial growth organizations and local politicians, presented Lee with a special plaque commemorating his devotion and service to the city of Jackson.

Lee recently retired from Lee-Rowan, the Jackson-based company he started in 1964, after selling the firm in early September to the Newell Company of Freeport, Ill.

Lee-Rowan manufactures and distributes closet shelving products in the U.S., Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Caribbean Basin.

His remarks Monday evening in accepting the honor were optimistic about the strength and growth of the company in the hands of the Newell Company.

William Sovey, vice chairman and CEO of Newell, was scheduled to appear at the banquet but canceled early Monday due to conflicts in his schedule.

"When I was ready to get started in 1964, I looked at 25 different cities around Missouri for a place to start a plant," Lee told the gathering. "I toured the state under an assumed name -- Lee Desmond -- as I was asking around in those 25 cities.

"Jackson is the only town that figured me out," he said. "I knew right then this was the place."

Lee-Rowan opened its Jackson operation in 1964 in a 42,500-square-foot building with 25 employees. Since then, the plant has undergone more than 10 additions and employs more than 1,200 people within its 635,000-square-foot facility.

Lee detailed his reasons for selling the business, a move which startled as many employees as it did business leaders in the community.

"If you are to be a successful business owner, you have to have the vision to know when change is necessary," he said. "Great company owners who lack vision see their companies die, their profits dry up and their employees turned out onto the street. I didn't want that to happen to Lee-Rowan.

"There comes a time in the history of everything -- no matter how great or small -- when the time for change has come," he continued. "For Lee-Rowan, the compass had to be re-routed. We had to look to the future."

Lee said there were four major reasons for his selling the company.

To begin with, he said he had been experiencing estate problems for several years that could not be worked out, leaving him little choice but to sell.

Second, Lee-Rowan was in need of the vast resources of Newell -- a $2 billion per year company -- to support new products and to finance sizable loans taken out by the company over the past several years for capital improvements.

Newell's offer for the company was also something which many corporations are not capable of anymore, Lee said. "Newell not only has the financial base to support and enhance this company, but also has a clout in the business world to control major customers, who can be ruthlessly demanding," he said.

"Finally, there was something I like to call synergy between our companies," said Lee. "Newell sells to the same companies we sell to -- the two together are stronger than both selling products to companies individually."

As evidence of his "synergy" concept, Lee said, the value of Newell's stock increased 20 percent after its acquisition of Lee-Rowan.

"This community has been a major part of my life and will continue to be for as long as I live," said Lee. "Tonight I issue all a challenge to give Newell the same cooperation and support that you've given me over the years.

"I shall always revere the people and friendships I have built here alongside my company," he said.

Lee's son Gary, president of the Lee-Rowan company, told the group that Newell was "brought in" to make the company bigger and stronger -- a task which could not be accomplished by closing Lee-Rowan's main facility.

"We have set out to be the best-run organization in the country," said Gary Lee. "But it is now the customer who will determine our fate.

"As long as people are buying Lee-Rowan products, we will continue to grow," he continued. "That is the only security I can offer."