TSN's Salazar to tackle real estate, new restaurants

FREDERICK - The paper prince has landed the big fish.

Israel "Izzy" Salazar and the shareholders of his distribution firm, TSN Inc., have signed a letter of intent to sell the Frederickbased firm to London-based Bunzl Plc, a maker of food packaging and cigarette filters.

TSN distributes

TSN is based in Frederick and it operates a facility in Richmond, Ind. TSN, which had $130 million in sales in 2003, employs 230 between the two facilities.

The sale price was not disclosed, but a press release issued by the company said sources close to the transaction report the sale to be between $50 million and $100 million.

"People have tried to come to us in the past, and I just wasn't in a frame of mind to sell," Salazar said. "And, it was not necessary to sell the company because it was doing well."

Bunzl contacted Salazar six months ago to see if a deal could be made and he decided the time was right to sell and that Bunzl would properly care for the employees.