Specialty Graphics Company FB Johnston Group Breaks Ground On Plant Expansion At Chapin, SC Headquarters

Business Wire, July 12, 2004

CHAPIN, S.C. -- The FB Johnston Group, a leading specialty graphics company, broke ground today on a major expansion at its headquarters and production facility in Chapin, SC, located 20 minutes northwest of Columbia.

The expansion will add 62,500 square feet of production space and 7,000 square feet of office space to the plant, bringing the total size to 101,700 sq. ft. The current expansion is designed to allow for an additional 100,000 square feet of future growth.

More than 150 people attended a groundbreaking ceremony today at the plant, located at 300 East Boundary Street in Chapin. Several local and state dignitaries attended, including U.S. Congressman Joe Wilson and U.S. Senate candidate Jim DeMint.

"The FB Johnston Group means a lot to me personally," Congressman Wilson said. "For more than 30 years, the company has created new jobs for the people of South Carolina. This latest expansion is another sign of the great collaboration among economic development agencies in the region."

Over the next five years, the company expects to double in size, which will require an additional 125 to 150 employees.

"Today, we are expanding for many of the same reasons we had when we originally relocated the company here in 1969," said FB Johnston Company Chairman and CEO Fred Johnston, II. "Those included a very strong local workforce, along with an outstanding quality of life. Local, county and state officials also have been very aggressive in retaining companies like ours and allowing us to remain a low-cost producer in the global economy."

As part of the expansion, the privately held company announced in April that it will move its manufacturing operations from Hillsborough, NC, to Chapin beginning in late 2004. The Hillsborough plant will remain operational through the end of 2004, when the consolidation is complete.

"FB Johnston Group is offering jobs at the Chapin facility to all employees in North Carolina who are interested," said President and Chief Operating Officer Jim O'Rourke. "We currently employ 75 in Hillsborough and 95 in Chapin."

"Our employees are the key to our current and future success," O'Rourke added. "One of our main goals is to be one of the best companies to work for in the state of South Carolina."

Job Applications Being Accepted

Persons interested in employment opportunities can call the FB Johnston Jobs Hotline at (803) 345-7993 or visit the company's website at www.fbjohnston.com. Resumes may be sent by fax to (803) 345-7917 (Attention: Human Resources) or mailed to:

FB Johnston Group
 Attention: Human Resources
 300 East Boundary Street
 PO Box 280
 Chapin, SC 29036

Applications may also be completed in person at the Chapin facility from 8 am to 5 pm, Monday through Wednesday.

The South Carolina Technical College System's Center for Accelerated Technology Training (CATT) will assist the FB Johnston Group with recruiting and training services for new hires.

Company Background

The FB Johnston Group is one of the top specialty graphics companies in the U.S., providing design, printing fulfillment, installation, inventory management services and on-site management support to original equipment manufacturers and point-of-purchase retailers. The company serves customers throughout the world, including BP Amoco, Motorola, KFC, Club Car, White Hen Pantry, Honda, Pentair Tools Group, Murphy Oil and Burger King.

Products range from signage and graphics on the pumps at BP stations to graphics on Club Car vehicles and menu slats for Burger King restaurants. FB Johnston prints customized materials then delivers them in the exact quantity needed and at the precise time needed--an important consideration for convenience store chain promotions, for example, or when manufacturers experience a spike in sales.

Annual revenues for the firm are approximately $30 million.

The FB Johnston' Group's roots stretch back to 1928, when the Weisz Decalcomania Company (predecessor to the FB Johnston Group) was founded in Chicago by German immigrant Clarence Weisz. Following Weisz's death in 1941, the ownership passed to several family members, one of whom was a client of Johnston's father, Fred Johnston, Sr. In 1948, he acquired the stock of that client and shortly afterward the balance of the ownership.

Company Chairman and CEO Fred Johnston, II joined the company in 1963, after graduating from Northwestern University's School of Business and serving in the Army during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The company relocated to South Carolina in 1969 and purchased a Charlotte firm, Screencraft, Inc., in 1975. In 1978, the Chapin facility made the first of a series of expansions and broadened its product offering to include metal nameplates. In late 1981, the company reincorporated in South Carolina as the Fred B Johnston Company, Inc.

In the 1990s, the company acquired several subsidiaries and divisions. In 1995, it acquired the Hillsborough facility from the WH Brady company and operated it under its then-existing name, Nameplate. Finally, in 1997 it acquired a facility in Nashville, Tenn., which produced sales promotion materials for retail chains. With the addition of this facility, which was later moved to the Chapin plant, the company began marketing its diverse product lines under the FB Johnston Group name.