R. Kent Farmer, Spectrum president and CEO, said he has known the owners of American Lubricants since the company was first formed. The fact we both do very similar things in the industry – it was a logical step for what we felt like was a very good acquisition, which we completed on July 7, Farmer told Lube Report. Since that time we have been in a mode of moving the tanks and various packaging lines from their Memphis operations to our location in Selmer, Tennessee.

Spectrum offers packaging from 2.6 ounces up to 55 gallon drums and 275 gallon totes, and has the capability of loading transport trucks. The company sells lubricants both nationwide and internationally, with products shipped to all 50 states, along with Puerto Rico, Canada and Asia.

Our primary focus was in buying some very nice packaging equipment as well as the opportunity to expand the export business, Farmer said. We felt like the addition of potential export business was advantageous to our growth as well as using their expertise along those lines.

They now own all our brands and products and formulas, and we just finished moving all our equipment and production to Selmer,” American Lubricatings president and general manager Chip Armstrong said on Friday. “We’ve just finished closing the old plant and today we’re moving into a building next door, to become a sales office for Spectrum.” He and his brother Michael, who was vice president of sales, have joined Spectrums team and will operate the Memphis branch, both working in sales. Chip Armstrong said a third brother, Drew, contemplates retiring.

American Lubricating Company in Memphis was founded in 1981 by the Armstrongs’ father, Luther A. Armstrong Sr., who passed away in January 2007. The senior Armstrong started his company with an eye to meeting the lubrication needs of the logging and timber industry, which he saw as under-served. His purpose-made bar-and-chain oils for this market and his well-known No Smoke Two Stroke engine oils put the company on the map. Later, the business expanded to reach other outdoor power equipment users, such as the lawn and garden and turf-care businesses, and markets in Latin America.

The outdoor equipment market also is a strong one for Spectrum, Chip Armstrong said. “Both companies are largely involved in the two-stroke engine oil market, focusing on lawn and garden equipment lubes. So we’ve been competing over the years but also saw areas where we could cooperate. This is a strategic move to join forces; it will help save on base oil and packaging costs, and also reduce administration costs. My family has known Kent Farmer for many years, both socially and in business, and while we’ve competed over the years we’re also very comfortable with each other. While they had better pricing on packaging, we had better pricing on formulas, so in the long term we think this is going to be good for us and for our customers.”

Armstrong said his company’s sales had reached about $7 million a year, consisting largely of lubricants in small packages that sold at premium prices. As American Lubricants’ fortunes rose, though, so did those of once-gritty downtown Memphis.

“Twenty or 25 years ago, we started in what was then the warehouse district of downtown Memphis,” Chip Armstrong recalled. “Now it’s condo city. Instead of other manufacturing businesses, our plant is now surrounded by art galleries, boutiques and condos.

You might say we were ‘zoned out’ of downtown Memphis. We’re simply not in the long-range plan of the South Memphis Historic District — and I was dreading the day when a truck would turn out from our gates and dent somebody’s Mercedes. More and more, we foresaw a time when the city would lean on manufacturing companies here, like by putting pressure on rail service, and so this was a good time to make the move. You might say we felt the winds of change.”