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Shredder makers see Enron fiasco boosting sales

Office shredding machine manufacturers are celebrating the Andersen/Enron Corp scandal as just the latest in a series of unexpected fillips for their business.

That kind of scandal-generated free advertising "brings shredding to the consumer consciousness," said Jaime Martin, product manager at Fellowes, a privately held office supplies manufacturer based in Itasca, Illinois.

"The last scandal to generate sales was Whitewater; the time before that was Iran-Contra," said Carolyn Muller, senior product manager for the shredding unit of General Binding Corp. "We will see a definite surge in sales, but it's always unexpected."

Some executives expect the recent Enron debacle, in which congressional committees are probing the shredding of documents related to Andersen's audit of the bankrupt energy giant's books, to generate as much industry publicity as the bungled destruction of documents by diplomats fleeing the besieged US embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Then, the piecing together of shredded documents by Persian carpet makers led the US Department of Defense to adopt cross-cut or 'confetti' shredders, boosting manufacturer sales.

Tuesday's reports of Walt Disney Co alleged destruction of records dealing with commercial rights to Winnie the Pooh may further fuel awareness of shredding -- a usually mundane task confined to the office or home.

While modern-day usage may involve shredding medical records or insurance claim, the origins of the practice lie firmly in political intrigue.

PASTA AND POLITICAL INTRIGUE

The first shredder was invented in the 1930s by Adolph Ehinger, who was arrested by the Gestapo for printing anti-Nazi propaganda, according to Jack Preiss, US sales manager for shredder distributor Ecco Rexel in New York.

After the authorities learned that Ehinger was only printing the pamphlets for a customer, said Preiss, the printer was released from prison.

In the meantime, however, Ehinger had realised the need for document-destroying equipment. He based his original shredder design on a machine used for cutting spaetzle, a German pasta, said Preiss.

TO CONFETTI OR STRIP

"If you are really trying to cover your tracks, you want to buy a confetti cutter," said Fellowes' Martin.

Most home office shredders, some of which retail for as little $30, offer no such security. Based on a one-way blade mechanism, these low-budget shredders cut paper into quarter-inch wide strips.

But, for those seeking absolute security, the only option is a confetti cutter that shreds to Security Level 5 -- that is favored by the Department of Defense and other federal agencies. Often retailing at over $1,500, Level 5 shredders slice paper into 1/32-inch x 7/16-inch rectangular shreds.

"It would take an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of years to piece that paper together," says former State Department employee Sy DeWitt, now a managing director in the International Business Risk unit of Chicago-based security company Pinkerton.

Unfortunately for those who ordered the shredding in the Enron incident, industry insiders surmise that either a confetti-cutter was unavailable, or speed may have been of the essence.

"I saw a picture of the lawyer carrying a box of shredded documents -- strips, not shreds -- they might be able to piece them together," said General Binding's Muller of the boxes of Andersen documents lawyers have been carrying into courtrooms.

SALES SURGE

Regardless of the outcome of the fiasco, most shredder manufacturers say the Enron inspired sales surge has already started.

"We have definitely seen an upswing; we are already over our sales forecast for the month," says Fellowes' Martin.

Better yet, say manufacturers, many second-time buyers tend to prefer the more expensive confetti-cutters.

Some even sense an opportunity to sell a confetti-cutter in Houston.

"I would love to know what brand they have," says Ecco's Preiss, of the strip cutters used by the Andersen auditors.

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