LEE-ROWAN'S ST. LOUIS OPERATIONS TO JACKSON

JACKSON -- A St. Louis industrial loss will be Jackson's gain.

Lee-Rowan, a St. Louis-based manufacturer and distributor of home organizational products, announced Monday that it will close its St. Louis manufacturing facility and combine the operation with its Jackson production facility.

Equipment will be transferred from St. Louis, and the 300 to 400 St. Louis workers will be given the opportunity to work in Jackson.

Pat Guillian, Lee-Rowan vice president of operations, said the company will continue to maintain a corporate office in the St. Louis area.

The move to Jackson has been under study for a long time.

"We have enough room here to accommodate additional equipment and workers," said Guillian.

The Jackson plant has more than 600,000 square feet under roof and employs 1,200 people.

Lee-Rowan officials hope to complete the transfer by Sept. 30.

The company also announced a new major account this week. The company will be providing products to Lowe's Companies Inc., headquartered in North Carolina, which operates more than 300 stores in 20 states, including one in Cape Girardeau.

"We'll be providing one of our major products -- small, wire space solvers -- and a few other items to Lowe's centers," said Constance H. Conrad, vice president of marketing services for Lee-Rowan. The products will be in all 325 Lowe's centers.

"We hope to have the new products in this month," said Jim Lund, manager of the local Lowe's Home Center.

Lee-Rowan was founded in 1939 by Edgar D. Lee and John V. Rowan in St. Louis. The company's first products were metal trouser creasers that were sold to Sears, Roebuck and Co. and JCPenney, which have been Lee-Rowan customers for 50 years.

During World War II, the company, unable to obtain steel for the trouser creasers, started manufacturing arming wires for bombs. After the war, the company experimented with new products that eventually led to Storage Systems by Lee-Rowan.

Today Lee-Rowan offers not only the hangers but a complete line of ventilated storage products and an assortment of traditional closet accessories.

The firm manufactures and distributes home organizational products in the United States, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Australia and the Caribbean Basin.

The company was acquired by Newell Co. Corp. of Freeport, Ill., in 1993.