A Rubbermaid plant was the county's largest private employer, until the company announced, in June 2006, that the plant, located in the Centerville industrial park, would close in October 2006.
Ferguson then attempted a 14 billion dollar merger with Rubbermaid to try to restore confidence of others which failed to produced the expected results.
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In 1950 after earning an MBA from Stanford University he began his business carrier with Newell Rubbermaid and beginning in 1962, the affiliated Newell Companies, including Western Newell, Newell Window Furnishings and Newell Manufacturing were consolidated into a single corporation and was headquartered in Freeport, Illinois.
Under the trade name “The Wooster Book Company,” its first title, a corporate history of Rubbermaid, written by retired Rubbermaid CEO and Chairman of the Board, Donald E. Noble, was released in 1996.