H.B. Fuller Honduras, S.A.

December 1995 GLUE MAKER'S IMAGE WON'T STICK By Paul Jeffrey Guatemala CityThe H., B. Fuller Company's employee profit sharing, corporate giving and funding of a University of Minnesota chair in corporate ethics have won it rave reviews from the Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) community and a listing in the book The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America. South of the Río Grande, however, this transnational, with 1995 revenues of $1.1 billion, supplies the drug of choice to Latin American street children seeking an escape from poverty, abuse and family disintegration [see Sticking with Addiction in Latin America, Multinational Monitor, April 1994]. How does a company that makes a product that does neurological damage to the brains of tens of thousands of children earn rave reviews among self-described socially responsible investors? A September 1995 study by the Washington, D.C.-based Social Investment Forum (SIF) found that $639 billion, or one out of every 11 professionally managed investment dollars, is held in a fund subject to some kind of ethical screen. More than 1, 000 members of SIFwhich includes large institutional investors, technical analysts, foundations and individual investorspledge to invest responsibly by applying honest, thorough and diligent methods of research and evaluation to investment picks. Interviews with SRI firms, many of which are bullish on Fuller stock...