Growth, acquisition, bankruptcy and reorganization
Known as the Ampad Holding Corporation, the company was purchased in 1986 by the Mead Corporation. In 1992, the newly formed holding company American Pad & Paper and Bain Capital purchased the subsidiary from Mead. Upon its formation, American Pad & Paper consolidated its 13 manufacturing and distribution facilities into six in 21 locations in the US. At the time, the company had more than 3700000 sqft of production and warehouse space in California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.[4]
The company continued to enjoy 53 percent compound annual growth in net sales, which increased from $8.8 million in 1992 to $200.5 million in 1996, when the company became publicly traded. The company made a number of acquisitions, including writing products company SCM in July 1994, brand names from the American Trading and Production Corporation in August 1995, WR Acquisition and the Williamhouse-Regency Division of Delaware, Inc. in October, 1995, Niagara Envelope Company, Inc. in 1996, and Shade/Allied, Inc. in February 1997.[4]
On January 8, 1999, unable to sustain profitability, the company announced it would be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.[5] After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Ampad was acquired in 2003 by an affiliate of Crescent Capital Investments, later renamed Arcapita.[6] Ampad's current president and CEO, Donald Meltzer, joined the company in August 2005, having formerly served as vice president and general manager of the Roofing Systems Group at Johns-Manville, and before that as the Executive Vice President and COO of Clore Automotive.[7]
On June 8, 2010 Ampad was acquired by Esselte. In July 2014, it was sold to TOPS Products.
On January 25, 2021, the company was the focus of attention for the dismissal of workers who demanded a fair salary increase and intimidation of administrative personnel, thus violating the clients' policies of respect for workers, good remuneration, excessive working hours
