Founded 1904 | ||
 | ||
NVF Company, formerly known as National Vulcanized Fiber, is a private company based in Yorklyn, Delaware. One of its original products, a sheet-like material called Forbon, is commonly used on guitar pickups. NVF also makes a product called Yorkite, another vulcanized fibre, that has wood grain printed directly on the material.
The company currently generates an estimated $42.2 million in sales and has about 550 employees.
The facility at Yorklyn DE was visited on May 31, 2015. The buildings are essentially empty and the roof of one building has collapsed on its own from apparent neglect. The entire site is in the process of being demolished in preparation for redevelopment. It is apparent that this facility had been abandoned or non-functional for a period of years, based upon the level of decay I observed. Many of the concrete floors had moss growing on them - a clue to the neglect this site has witnessed.
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.
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.
In 1946, the company's shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
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.
An NVF facility in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania was found to be contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls.
A former NVF manufacturing site in Newark, Delaware has been redeveloped by the Commonwealth Group of New Castle, Delaware.