Sweetheart Cup

Sweetheart Cup Co., which employs more than 2,000 people at its Owings Mills headquarters and factory, will sell 48 percent of its voting stock in a deal that will combine many operations with Vermont-based Fonda Group Inc., officials said yesterday.The deal also calls for Sweetheart's primary shareholder, American Industrial Partners, to give the Fonda Group management responsibility over the company. The agreement is aimed at expanding opportunities and cutting costs at the two companies that make disposable food packaging.

Despite objections by Hampstead Mayor Christopher M. Nevin, the Carroll commissioners have amended the county water and sewage master plan to include service for Sweetheart Cup Co. The 1 million-square-foot distribution center next to Hampstead will have access to 50,000 gallons of water daily. Nevin had asked the county to phase in service as the company needs it. "My understanding is that the distribution center ... will only require 2,500 gallons per day," Nevin wrote in a letter to the commissioners.

Carroll County Board of Zoning Appeals has approved Sweetheart Cup's once-contentious plan to build a diesel fuel tank at its distribution center outside Hampstead. The company enflamed residents last year when it announced plans to build an above-ground tank within 225 feet of homes on Houcksville Road - well within the 600-foot distance required by county zoning regulations. The company's new plan, which will place the tank 875 feet from homes, has drawn little opposition from residents or Hampstead officials.

The front porch of Lynn Supp's 92-year-old Victorian-style house in the country used to overlook a corn and wheat field. When she noticed this summer that it had been left to weeds, she figured the rumors were true about a different kind of plant coming in.Sweetheart Cup Co. held its ceremonial groundbreaking yesterday to celebrate the new 1.034-million-square-foot distribution center to be built just outside Hampstead, off Houcksville Road, across from...

Trigen-Cinergy Solutions said yesterday that it signed a 20-year deal worth about $200 million with Sweetheart Cup Co. to provide electricity and steam to the paper and plastic food-ware maker's manufacturing facility at its Owings Mills headquarters.The deal calls for TCS to build a 15-megawatt co- generation plant on the site, said James J. Abromitis, president of Trigen Energy Baltimore, the local branch of Trigen Energy Corp. of White Plains, N.Y. The plant should be completed by the fourth quarter of 2000, he said.

Last week, Sweetheart Cup Co. drew 200 people to a ribbon-cutting ceremony officially opening its 1 million-square-foot distribution center adjacent to Hampstead. Carroll commissioners lauded the company's arrival as a boon to the county's economic development. No Hampstead officials attended. They're not so happy with their huge new neighbor. "Sweetheart Cup is not widely considered as the best thing that ever happened to Hampstead," said Kenneth Decker, town manager. The town is upset by an additional 125 trucks a day on Route 30, its major artery; a berm the contractor built atop a municipal water main; and plans to place a 12,000-gallon diesel-fuel tank near the huge building.

Jobs are in jeopardy at Sweetheart Cup Co. Inc.'s Owings Mills corporate headquarters as a result of Sweetheart's acquisition by Chicago-based Solo Cup Co., but production and distribution workers there may have less reason to be concerned, an industry expert said yesterday. Solo, which is buying the 90-year-old paper cup and plate maker for an undisclosed price in a deal announced Monday, plans to close some offices and factories across North America in the coming year as it merges the two companies, leaving an uncertain future for Sweetheart's Maryland operations.

Little Hampstead has a huge new neighbor, Sweetheart Cup Co. You'll find it just beyond the town limits, behind the homes and storefronts lining Main Street. It's a concrete giant so big that seven Wal-Marts would fit inside with room to spare. All 4,500 people living in Hampstead could easily fit under its 51-acre roof. "I'm hoping they'll be a good neighbor," said Chris Cavey, who owns an insurance agency on Main Street. "People have no idea how big this building really is. I was checking for a leak on my roof recently and I got an exceptional view.

Hampstead officials are asking the county to phase in sewer lines for major construction by Sweetheart Cup Co. outside town limits until more information is available on the impact of the project. Hampstead strongly objected to one revision in the county's water and sewer master plan that would move 141 acres of industrial land into a planned sewer service area, which would benefit the company. The site would be served by the same county sewer treatment plant that the town uses. A public hearing on that revision and eight others became a sparring match yesterday between the commissioners and the town.

Although bad weather, a weak economy and rising energy costs depressed sales, Sweetheart Cup Inc. said yesterday that its third-quarter profit rose. The Owings Mills-based company is one of the country's biggest makers of disposable paper and plastic cups, plates and cutlery, and food packaging products. It employs 1,550 people in Maryland. Sweetheart had net sales of $263.8 million in the 13 weeks that ended June 24, down 0.3 percent from $264.6 million for the comparable period last year.