American Pad & Paper LLC, or Ampad, is a manufacturer of office products, including writing pads, specialty papers, filing products and envelopes. Some products are marketed under the Ampad brand name, others are produced for brands including Staples and

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

. The company makes over 2500 products, including pads in a variety of sizes, paper grades, colors, and bindings. Its headquarters are located in Richardson, Texas,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. with four factories in North America, including facilities in the United States and a plant in

Matamoros, Tamaulipas Matamoros, officially known as Heroica Matamoros, is a city in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and the municipal seat of the homonymous municipality. It is on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, directly across the border from Br ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Gua ...

History

Founding

Ampad was founded in 1888 by Thomas W. Holley, a paper mill employee, in

Holyoke, Massachusetts Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,238. Located north of Springfield ...

. At the time, Holyoke was a major papermaking center. Holley began purchasing the rejects, or "sortings", from local paper mills, cutting the paper, inscribing rules on it, and binding it into pads which he could sell at a discount. Within a year, Holley's business filled a whole floor of a commercial building on Holyoke's Main Street. By 1894, the business grew to occupy an entire building, at the corner of Winter and Appleton Streets in Holyoke, and in 1909, the size of its facilities there were nearly doubled. By the end of World War II, the company had expanded outside of Massachusetts and established international footholds.

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 Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry ...

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 of production and warehouse space in California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.American Pad & Paper Company - Answers.com
/ref> 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. On January 8, 1999, unable to sustain profitability, the company announced it would be delisted from the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

. After filing for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

protection, Ampad was acquired in 2003 by an affiliate of Crescent Capital Investments, later renamed

Arcapita Arcapita founded in 1997, is an asset management firm. Headquartered in Manama, Bahrain, Arcapita also operates from its offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. The firm serves a group of investors in the Mi ...

. Ampad's current president and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

, 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 Johns Manville is an American company based in Denver, Colorado, that manufactures insulation, roofing materials and engineered products. For much of the 20th century, the then-titled Johns-Manville Corporation was the global leader in the ...

, and before that as the Executive Vice President and COO of Clore Automotive. On June 8, 2010 Ampad was acquired by

Esselte Esselte is a manufacturer and marketer of office products and business supplies with subsidiaries in 25 countries and sales in over 120 countries. Esselte makes files, binders, folders, covers, staplers, letter trays and computer accessories under ...

. 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

Legal pad claim

The company claims its founder, Thomas W. Holley, invented the legal pad, and no other company has challenged this claim; however, no patent was filed for the invention, and details of the invention are largely absent, including the reason for the pads' yellow color, which costs 10 to 20 percent more than plain white to produce.

References

{{Reflist Pulp and paper companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Texas Companies based in Richardson, Texas Manufacturing companies established in 1888 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000 1888 establishments in Massachusetts 2010 mergers and acquisitions 2014 mergers and acquisitions