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Harbour Group Subsidiary Acquires Product Lines from Gary Plastic Packaging Corp.

12 December 1997

Harbour Group Subsidiary Acquires Product Lines from Gary Plastic Packaging Corp.

    ST. LOUIS, Dec. 12 -- Sam Fox. Chairman and Chief Executive
Office of Harbour Group, announced today that Hopkins Manufacturing, a
subsidiary of Harbour Group, has acquired certain assets of Gary Plastic
Packaging Corp., specifically those of the winter and automotive product
lines.  Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
    Hopkins manufactures a number of niche products for the automotive
aftermarket as well as for automobile manufacturers, dealers, repair shops and
safety inspection facilities.  The company employs approximately 325 people
and is headquartered in Emporia, Kansas.
    Gary is a leading manufacturer and distributor of non-chemical exterior
winter car care accessories, including scrapers, snow brooms and squeegees
which are offered for sale through mass merchandisers as well as automotive
retailers.
    Mr. Fox stated that the acquisition of Gary's product lines by Hopkins
"represents another example of Harbour Group's commitment to establishing a
presence in the highly fragmented automotive accessory market."
    Ken Hopkins, President of Hopkins Manufacturing commented, "The winter and
automotive product lines are excellent complements to Hopkins' current product
offering and will help Hopkins establish as increasingly significant presence
in automotive aftermarket."
    Harbour Group is a privately owned company based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Harbour Group, its related companies and former subsidiaries (the public
companies in which Harbour Group retains varying amounts of stock ownership)
are engaged in the manufacture of a variety of industrial products, including
process cleaning equipment, automated production equipment, auxiliary
processing equipment, construction equipment, industrial automotive springs,
and stamped products.  These businesses employ over 10,000 people in 44 U.S.
and foreign plants, and have annual revenues in excess of $1.5 billion.

SOURCE  Harbour Group