Rollpak has been sold

Well folks, we are finally allowed to share what all of the heart of Tony's busyness has been about. Rollpak has been sold to Berry Plastics. I know... quite a shock for you all I'm sure. It's been knowledge that has really been a burden to bear without being able to share with our closest family and friends due to the strict confidentiality requirements. This process originally started last Fall. We learned of it at the beginning of December. A short time later Dave left and Tony has been incredibly busy ever since; trying to do all of the "normal" work stuff and trying to work with preparing the numerous financial information that prospective buyers have requested over the last few months. Wednesday of this week was the actual closing of the sale of Rollpak. It is with very mixed emotions that those employees say good-bye to the founders of Rollpak and welcome a new, much larger company to steer their ship. The majority of the employees found out about the sale this past Monday. ...Really, it would have been a blessing NOT to know about all of this until most of the questions one would have, would actually have an answer. Of course the biggest fear was that it would be sold to another company that makes can liners, a pretty normal assumption really. If that was the case most likely all of the administrative staff would have most likely been let go and the factory would have been run by the parent administration. A lot of prayers went up for Rollpak the last 5-6 months. Berry Plastics makes a very LARGE amount of plastic bottles etc, etc, etc. They are a 3.1 billion dollar company and employ around 14,000 around the USA. They have chosen to leave Rollpak as it is ... just changing the name to Berry Plastics and leaving Rollpak as the "brand name"... just like "Ziplock" would be a brand name of their manufacturer. For more information on Berry, you can go to http://www.berryplastics.com/ . There is a press-release about their purchase of Rollpak on the right hand side of their home page that was posted yesterday.

Tony met the new owners this week and last night there was a dinner at the Blue Gill for the management team and their spouses to meet the new owners. I have to say that they are extremely nice, warm and likable people. Two of the wives were there and they certainly seemed like normal, down to earth people who were easy to talk to. The chairman and CEO was there. It will be so different now with a HUGE company. I'll probably never lay eyes on him again. Their home base is in Evansville, IN. They had several "toasts" throughout the evening. More than once people thanked Tony for all of the many hours he has put in and for what a great job he has done. I thought that was very nice and made him feel appreciated. Between Monday and Tuesday of this week, he had already worked 37 hours, re-taking their inventory and preparing up to date financial information for the closing on Wednesday. I don't even work that much in 1 week!! He's too old to be pulling all-nighters and he is definitely feeling it. He didn't look so good when he headed out this morning. I think our vacation should have been for this next week instead of last week.

So, my worry is that this "secret" will offend people because they didn't know about it. Please, please, please don't feel this way. It truly was something that we wish we wouldn't have had to know about. It was very difficult at the Christmas party this year for Tony, to look around at these friends and colleagues and wonder if any of them would have a job in a few months. We wanted so terribly to share with you; for me it was actually painful not to be able to share... us women gain strength from talking things out with others! In a way it made us rely on God all the more... for controlling the anxiety and giving us reassurances that everything would be OK, no matter the outcome. I guess all things are opportunities to grow closer to Christ.

Well, I know this has been very long. I would have loved to call each of you up and told you in person one by one but that's probably not practical and certainly this is one way that I get to tell each of you the facts myself instead of hearing it through the grapevine. So, for those of you that have prayed for Tony and his job without knowing any of the specifics, I truly thank you and please know that your prayers were and are coveted. We still have many unknowns about what his job will be like from now on but we feel secure that he still will have a job and that reassurance has been a blessing.

My love to each of you, Leah