June 28, 2007

By Diane Chiddister

Antioch Publishing, a small division of The Antioch Company, is for sale, according to Antioch Company CEO Lee Morgan.

The business, which creates bookmarks and other book accessories, has actually been for sale for several months, Morgan said in an interview this week, but local interest was stirred recently by an article in the Dayton Daily News.

If the business is sold, it will not affect the location of The Antioch Company in Yellow Springs, nor will it affect the company’s building on the corner of Dayton Street and East Enon Road, Morgan emphasized.

“It’s not the building, not the real estate,” he said.

The Antioch Company’s Yellow Springs location currently has 109 employees, and about 27 of those work for Antioch Publishing. Out of those 27, about five Antioch Publishing employees live in Yellow Springs and could potentially move out of town if the business is sold to a company outside the village, Morgan said.

Antioch Publishing has 40 employees in all, with the remaining 13 located in the company’s Fairborn plant.

Four different businesses have expressed interest in purchasing Antioch Publishing, but nothing has been finalized. Morgan declined to identify specific businesses with an interest in Antioch Publishing, saying that it would be inappropriate to do so at this time.

The Antioch Company will only sell Antioch Publishing if the right buyer comes along, according to Morgan, who said he has not set a specific price for the business. If the right buyer does not show up, the business will not be sold.

While Antioch Publishing is a profitable business, the division is up for sale because it “is not a good fit,” with the larger company, Morgan said. The Antioch Company’s main division, Creative Memories, is a direct sales business which manufactures photo albums and other photo album accessories. Annual revenues for the whole company, which employs 850 people worldwide, are in excess of $250 million. According to Morgan, 95 percent of the production work at the Yellow Springs location relates to Creative Memories products.

Antioch Publishing is the original division of The Antioch Company, and was founded in 1926 by Morgan’s father, Ernest Morgan, then a student at Antioch College. A printer, Ernest Morgan devised a way to make bookmarks out of the scrap paper not used by Antioch College’s printing operation. He was allowed to use the printing press for free in return for performing janitorial duties, and in this way, started his business with no financial investment, according to Lee Morgan. Ernest Morgan then spent several years touring the country to sell the bookmarks.

“In today’s parlance, you could call it recycling,” Lee Morgan said.

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com