National Vulcanized Fiber

NVF Company, formerly known as National Vulcanized Fiber,[1] was a private company based in Yorklyn, Delaware. One of its original products, a sheet-like material called Forbon, was commonly used on guitar pickups.[2] NVF also made a product called Yorkite, another vulcanized fibre, that has wood grain printed directly on the material.

At one time, the company generated an estimated $42.2 million in sales and had about 550 employees.

NVF stopped manufacturing Vulcanized Fibre in Yorklyn after a flood in 2003 damaged the equipment. Corporate offices continued to operate until 2009, when they declared bankruptcy and dissolved the company,[3] including the Kennett Square facility which made Industrial Plastic Laminates. At that point, NVF Company ceased to exist.[4]

History

The company was formed by the merger of American Vulcanized Fiber Company, the National Fiber and Insulation Company and the Keystone Fiber Company on January 1, 1923.[5]

Company president Warren Marshall's 1936 salary was included in a list of "highest salaries paid in nation" released in 1938 by a Congressional committee.[6]

In 1946, the company's shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.[7]

In the 1990s, the company was controlled by financier Victor Posner.

NVF was involved in a dispute with the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts about unpaid taxes on a paper factory there which was later destroyed by fire.[8][9]

An NVF facility in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania was found to be contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls.[10]

A former NVF manufacturing site in Newark, Delaware has been redeveloped by the Commonwealth Group of New Castle, Delaware.[11]

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