of fashion, home improvement, and architecture. Reynolds marketed aluminum foil as gift wrap, aluminum yarn for Vogue dress patterns, and even extended their advertising strategy to include wrapping their office headquarters in aluminum. Four sons of founder Richard S. Reynolds, William G. Reynolds, Richard S. Reynolds Jr., David P. Reynolds, and J. Louis Reynolds, were all part of the running of the business. Richard S. Reynolds Jr. succeeded his father as president in 1948 and under his leadership, the company underwent a major expansion with operations extended to countries around the world such as Venezuela and the Philippines. In 1976 David P. Reynolds, also known for his involvement in Thoroughbred horse racing, took over as president. He was the last member of his family to head the company and would retire as chairman. Reynolds Metals developed other, less well-known products; not all became commercially viable, such as an aluminum bus developed with Rohr Industries, a 12 foot aluminum utility boat, and other aluminum motor vehicles., The aluminum vehicles were surpassed in weight and cost by steel, plastics and fiberglass. However, when Reynolds Metals developed the world's first aluminum submarine, the Aluminaut, the experimental product participated in a key rescue. In 1969, Aluminaut rescued Alvin (DSV-2). Aluminaut's assistance enabled Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to continue operating its submersible. Alvin's work continues 45 years later. By 1991, Reynolds Metals employed 30,800 workers at more than 100 operations in 20 countries, including 64 plants in the United States, and had a total production capacity of more than 1 million tons of aluminum and aluminum products. The company was acquired by Alcoa on May 3, 2000 to become the largest aluminum company in the United States. On January 21, 2008, Alcoa sold its consumer unit to Rank Group Ltd. Rank's owner, New Zealand billionaire Graeme Hart, renamed Alcoa's former unit the Reynolds Packaging Group. Hart merged his other packaging companies into Reynolds to create Reynolds Group Holdings. In an initiative led by Paul D. Thomas, Reynolds Packaging Group chief executive officer and a former Alcoa executive, on September 21, 2008, Reynolds announced that one of the foil plants that produced Reynolds Wrap, in downtown Richmond, Virginia, would be closed and foil operations moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where Reynolds Wrap first was produced. A small portion of the spooling operation from the Richmond Foil plant was moved to the Reynolds plant in Grove City, Pennsylvania,