Toups takes a radically different name

By ROBERT TRIGAUX

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 22, 2000

On Tuesday, the artist formerly known as Prince said he will be known again as Prince. The same week, Largo's Toups Technology Licensing said it was changing its name to EarthFirst Technologies Inc.

Coincidence?

Toups, named for founder Leon Toups, decided its fate is better served with a new name with an enviro-friendly theme. The small company devises unusual technologies that purportedly help make energy or find oil in more ecologically responsible ways. One process is supposed to consume liquid wastes by flowing them through an underwater electrical arc while producing a non-polluting combustible gas.

The EarthFirst name is the brainchild of Toups' new chief executive, John Stanton, who also joined the company last week. Stanton owned the EarthFirst name and convinced the Toups board that a name change made marketing sense.

It so happens that EarthFirst shares its new name with Oregon-based Earth First. That's the "radical conservation journal" that documents global protests against loggers and utilities, among others, and whose motto is "No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth."

No word on whether the company formerly known as Toups is a subscriber. But the company does plan to change its Over The Counter ticker symbol (now TOUP.OB) to reflect its new name.

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