Company disputes K-C’s new tissue
Kimberly-Clark Corp., Roswell, Ga., recently flooded the mainstream news media with releases about its newest product: Cottonelle Fresh Rollwipes, a premoistened toilet tissue on a roll. The company claims the product was the “first major innovation in toilet paper in over 100 years.”

But DeWitt Paul, president of Moist Mates LLC, Placentia, Calif., believes that claim is all wet. Moist Mates introduced a product in 1996 that Paul says is substantially similar to the new Rollwipes.

Linda Kwong, a representative from Brouillard Communications, the New York City public relations firm handing inquiries for Kimberly-Clark, says the products are indeed different.

“The Rollwipes are unlike any other wet wipes,” Kwong explains. “We use water-dispersable technology. The product stays together when wet, then disperses when dropped into the toilet bowl.”

However, that doesn’t sit well with Paul.

“Kimberly-Clark is drawing the distinction between dispersable and flushable,” he says, “Frankly, I don’t know what the difference is.”

Since the Rollwipes have yet to debut in stores, Paul hasn’t seen the final product. “Once we do see it, there could be evidence of patent infringement,” he says.

Paul hopes he can avoid litigation. “We’re contesting for bragging rights now,” he says. “This is a big product category, and hopefully, there will be room for all of us.”


Essential Founders Donate $2 Mil
Marquette University in Milwaukee hopes to build a new athletic facility with a recent $2 million donation by James and Virginia Wheeler.

The Wheelers are founders of Essential Industries Inc., a soap and detergent manufacturer in nearby Merton, Wis.. James Wheeler is a Marquette alumnus.

The athletic facility is expected to provide practice facilities for women’s and men’s basketball, strength and conditioning and sports medicine facilities, an academic center for student-athletes and a Marquette athletics hall of fame. Details have not been finalized.

The facility will be named in honor of Al McGuire, former Marquette basketball coach, who passed away in late January, after the donation was announced. McGuire led the Marquette Warriers to the 1977 NCAA Championship.


Receptacle Firm Owners Fund Scholarship
The Weiss family, owners of United Receptacle, Pottsville, Pa., have created the Mishpacha Weiss Scholarship at Penn State - Schuylkill.

The scholarship was created to provide financial support to academic achievers, with preference given to United Receptacle employees and their children, and to full-time undergraduate students in engineering or computer science.

The word “mispacha” means “family” in Yiddish.


Mergers & Other Moves

  • Daley International, a Chicago-based chemical and equipment manufacturing company has acquired Steam Way International, Denver, a professional carpet and upholstery cleaning equipment manufacturer.

  • Georgia-Pacific Corp., Atlanta, sold a portion of its commercial tissue manufacturing operations to Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA), a Swedish forest industry group. SCA will acquire what was formerly known as Georgia-Pacific Tissue. This sale allows Georgia-Pacific to finalize its acquisition of Fort James Corp., Deerfield, Ill.


Quirky Cleaning News
The couple depicted below might seem like truly dedicated cleaning workers — if the tale wasn’t a complete lie. Gordon Zwicky of Oshkosh, Wis. recently won the annual Burlington (Wis.) Liars Club’s Champion Liar title by submitting this tall tale:

“Gordon and his wife have never been more than 25 miles from Oshkosh during their 50 years of marriage. They won some lottery money and decided they could go to Florida. Their neighbor, who had traveled extensively, advised them to pay attention to the road signs and they would get along just fine. Thirty miles from home they saw a sign stating 'clean rest rooms ahead.' Two months later they arrived in Florida. They had cleaned 450 restrooms, used 267 rolls of paper towels, three cases of bowl cleaner and 86 bottles of Windex. They were so tired, they left for home immediately.”


Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor:
I just reviewed your article in the Contracting Profits Magazine dated January 2001. I am a bit disturbed over the ergonomics policy that has been passed down by OSHA. I do agree that there are cases of folks who suffer long-term injuries that may or may not have been caused by their work environment, but we are now hiring people who are looking for ways to beat the system.

The current workforce is becoming Workfare — people who have done nothing for two generations but collect government checks. Now we open a can of worms with the new standard and these folks are looking for the angle to stay home and collect that check. Accommodating these people, training them and teaching the simplest forms of job responsibilities are hard enough without OSHA tossing this standard into our laps, and BSCs end up paying for it.

As a ‘Profit” magazine I hope you would understand that this is not a business where we should allow even more opportunity to beat the system and begin by helping and finding ways for us to make something out of these people so they become healthy contributors to society.

Thomas C. Heveron, CBSE, President
Beachland Cleaning Service,Vero Beach, Fla.




POSTED ON: 2/1/2001