This Day in Norwood History-April 15, 1964-Plimpton Press Acquired By McCalls

The McCall Corporation announced over the weekend that it has acquired two companies, Plimpton Press and Jersey City Printing Company for $14,000,000 in cash.

Plimpton Press, which was established in 1882, is one of the oldest, largest and best-integrated manufacturers of books in the United States The company, which specializes in textbooks, maintains its headquarters in Norwood, and has large manufacturing facilities in LaPorte, Indiana as well as in Norwood.

The Jersey City Printing Company, whose principal business is printing telephone directories, is the nation’s oldest and one of its largest producers of telephone directories. The company was established in 1884 and has a wholly owned subsidiary, Pennland Printing with major composing room facilities in Yeadon, Pennsylvania Headquarters and manufacturing operations are in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Both Jersey City Printing Company and Plimpton Press will function as autonomous divisions of McCall Corporation and will continue their present policies under the existing management.

Sales of the combined companies during 1963 were approximately $26,000,000 and earnings after federal income taxes were $1,052,000 In announcing the acquisitions, Herbert R. Mayes, President of McCall, emphasized, the McCall diversified program which began in 1962 when the National Publishing Company of Washington, D C , was acquired and continued in 1963 with the acquisition of Foote • & Davies of Atlanta, Georgia The newly added companies provide McCall with a substantial position in the printing of telephone directories and in book manufacturing.

McCall’s largest plant in Dayton, Ohio prints 57 nationally circulated magazines and produces more than 3,000,000 copies daily. The company’s own magazines include Red book Magazine, Saturday Review, and McCall’s, which have a combined circulation of 8,250,000 per issue.

(All articles were originally published in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)