Lipscomb leaves his legacy at InDiv

International Division Inc. founder Forest Lipscomb Jr. had always planned on retiring at 90, but an ongoing battle with throat cancer prompted the globetrotting businessman to sell his Springfield-based export marketing company last month.

Fortunately for Lipscomb, InDiv - as the company's known - is now in the hands of eight employees who purchased all the company's stock and assets for an undisclosed amount in a deal that closed Dec. 19.

Majority shareholder Jose Sala is president of InDiv, which exports an array of poultry farming equipment to customers primarily in Mexico, South America and parts of Asia. InDiv partners with manufacturers to sell incubation, feeding and ventilation systems for poultry operations as well as prefabricated buildings and grain storage silos.

After capitalizing on the meatpacking and further-processed poultry industries, the company began making plastic molds in the early 2000s and later contracted with manufacturers for a line of InDiv-branded equipment.

"It opened our eyes that there were some other opportunities for us," Sala said of the company's evolving business model. "We started taking that idea to another level."

InDiv's roots date back to the late 1950s when Lipscomb's family business, Lipscomb Grain & Seed Co., contracted to run a feed mill on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. In his time overseas, Lipscomb realized there was an export market for farming equipment and animal medication; in 1964, he incorporated InDiv -- as the company became known because international cable dispatches were priced by the letter.

Since that time, the company has broadened its presence by building a traveling sales force to establish international customers. Today, InDiv employs about 50 at sales offices in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Malaysia and Venezuela. Sala, a 27-year InDiv employee and Drury University graduate, said his homeland of Argentina is, by far, the company's most successful market.

Lipscomb hired Sala, a bilingual international business graduate, straight out of college. Sala said his mentor, who turned 88 in October, had planned to retire in 2010, but a hard-to-detect re-emergence of throat cancer hit Lipscomb hard last year.

After receiving chemotherapy treatment at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Lipscomb decided to implement his succession plan two years early. As part of the deal, he agreed to stay on with the company through late 2010 if possible, but a bout of pneumonia that struck New Year's Day has kept him from returning to work.

Sala said the transition at InDiv, 401 W. McDaniel St., has been a tough one, overshadowed by Lipscomb's second battle with throat cancer. He successfully beat back the first occurrence 12 years ago.

"We just wish the circumstances were such that Forest's health wasn't an issue," Sala said. "I wish he was going to Hawaii. He's got a condo there and in Mexico."

Bob Nothum, president of Springfield-based Nothum Manufacturing Co., said he worked closely with Lipscomb and Sala to sell his company's food-processing systems abroad. Nothum said he traveled to Colombia with Lipscomb in the mid-1980s to land a customer interested in his company's batter, breading and frying equipment.

"I think where they've done really well is building relationships with these owners of these companies that want to become integrated," Nothum said of InDiv. "They've integrated the poultry (industry) - the raising of the birds and the slaughtering of the birds. In this type of business, you have to move with the industry."

Lipscomb's desire to keep the company intact and expanding into new markets has now become Sala's mission. The new president said InDiv has adapted many times throughout the years and is now positioning itself to grow when the global economy begins to show signs of recovery.

Nothum said he's confident Sala would lead InDiv in the right direction. "Jose can certainly steer the ship," he said.

Sala and members of InDiv's management team, including Vice President of Sales and Operations Daniel Crooks, will attend the 2009 International Poultry Expo in Atlanta the week of Jan. 26 to assess business opportunities for the coming year. Right now, though, InDiv has adopted a "wait-and-see attitude," Sala said.

Because of its reliance on the U.S. economy, Mexico has been the hardest hit of InDiv's markets, Sala said. Consequently, the company has turned its attention to other countries, such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Russia, where InDiv recently passed on a large deal that could have jeopardized the company had it foundered, Sala said.

"We're still feeling our way for what our niche is in Russia," he added. "You have to really understand how business is done in Russia. The first thing you have to do is get over the culture shock."

While the global financial crisis has definitely dampened InDiv's outlook, Sala said the company is excited about a new banking relationship with UMB Bank. He said InDiv decided to leave BancorpSouth because the bank froze the company's line of credit last year when Lipscomb's health began to decline.

Michael Garner, UMB's vice president of commercial lending, said the Kansas City-based bank was impressed by the quality of InDiv products, the company's commitment to customers and the strength of its management team.

"I think this will be a very long-term, mutually beneficial relationship," Garner said. "They're doing a lot of great things over there ... and there's a lot of strategic priorities that will set them apart from their competition."

The Export-Import Bank of the United States also has provided medium-term insurance for a $4.68 million Toronto Dominion Bank loan to one of InDiv's Argentine customers that has purchased watering, feeding and ventilation systems for expanded operations.

Sala said in an Ex-Im Bank news release that this transaction and others like it have a trickle-down effect on InDiv's domestic suppliers, which include Indiana-based manufacturer Ziggity Systems Inc.

"We secure the order, then give the order to our suppliers," he said in the release. "This helps keep U.S. manufacturing going (and) helps InDiv and its manufacturers sustain jobs."