By MARGARET JACKSON

Business activity: Sportsplay Equipment Inc. manufactures fun.

The company makes a variety of playground equipment for parks and school at its north St. Louis point.

"Everything we do is institutional," said Tom Kearns, the company's president. "It's not what you would put in your back yard."

Aluminum basketball backboards are the company's main product line, but it also offers a full line of playground equipment, including swing sets, football and soccer goals, picnic table and fitness course equipment.

"Over half of the aluminum backboards sold in the United States each year are cast in our foundry," said Brian Kearns, vice president of Sportsplay.

Sportsplay also sells several hundred aluminum-cast ponies monted on sdprings every year.

"We're looking for former manufacturers of playground animals who have molds sitting around," Tom Kearns said.

In addition the company manufactures a line of swing sets for children and adults who use wheelchairs.

"I don't think anyone else makes that," Kearns said. "We think it's necessary that someone make it. The handicapped are being considered more and more in park design."

Executives: Tom Kearns, 49, president of the company, commutes from his home in Bonne Terre twice a week. A former employee of Harbour Group, he has been working with his brother Richard since the late 1980s.

Brian Kearns, 27, is Sportsplay's vice president. Formerly in real estate appraisal in New York, he is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his master's degree in management from the Kellog School at Northwestern University.

Richard Kearns, a principal in the company, provided the strategic overview of how the business would be structured and financed. He also worked at Harbour Group in warehousing and distribution.

Company history: Sportsplay Equipment was founded in April 1996 after buying the assets of PCA Industry out of bankruptcy, making it the family's fifth manufacturing business. PCA, formed around 1958, manufactured items similar to Sportsplay's line.

In addition to Sportsplay Equipment, Tom and Richard Kearns own Bidco Rubber Extrusion Inc., Bidco Plastic Extrusion Inc., Bidco Sealants Inc. and Bidco Fibre Inc.

The father-and-son team of Brian and Richard Kearns also owns The Delivery Network, a logistics and specialty packaging business in Granite City.

Revenue: In 1996, the company had revenue of $2.2 million. That number grew to $3.5 million for 1997, and the projection for 1998 is between $5 million and $6 million.

"When we bought it out of bankruptcy, it turned a profit, and it's turned a profit ever since," Tom Kearns said.

Employees: Sportsplay has 27 employees, up fro 17 a year ago. The 10 additional employees returned to the company after it was brought out of bankruptcy.

"These are all people who were here before, so they appreciate what goes on now," Brian Kearns said.

The shop's supervisor, Ray Frazier, returned when the company went into bankruptcy. The bankruptcy trustee asked Frazier to return to help operate the company, turn inventory into cash and fill orders.

Sportsplay also has a network of distributors throughout the United States who sell about 90 percent of the company's products.

"Part of (the former company's) problem was that they tried to sell direct and not go through distributors," Brian Kearns said.

Changes: The company has increased its production capacity by 50 percent since emerging from bankruptcy.

The Kearns have upgraded the quality of aluminum used in their products and purchased a new background mold for about $40,000. Another addition to the plant is a wheelabrader - a large barrel-like machine that spews metal shot on a backboard placed inside. The combination of the upgraded aluminum and new equipment allows workers to spend less time sanding and grinding and more time making backboards.

The company also has invested $36,000 in a new furnace, which will increase production capacity.

"To do something like this and turn it around, you have to spend some money," Tom Kearns explained.

The company bought the manufacturing assets of Omaha, Nebraska-based Dan McElroy Playground Equipment Inc., which includes a line of modular playground equipment. Dan McElroy will continue to design and distribute the product, which will complement Sportsplay's older line of playground equipment.

Professional services: The company banks with Magna Bank. Massie, Fudenburg, Goldberg is Sportsplay Equipment's accounting firm, and Rosenblum, Goldenhersh, Silverstein and Zafft is the company's law firm.

The future: Sportsplay will introduce two new product lines at a trade show in Salt Lake City: The Dan McElroy line and a rectangular cast aluminum basketball backboard.

"In some places, like Indiana, they won't play on a fan-shaped board, so it opens up new markets," Brian Kearns said.

In the long tern, the Kearns are looking for new businesses to buy.

"We like the manufacturing business enough that this is our fifth manufactuing company, and we're looking for more," Brian Kearns said.