Sherrill Manufacturing to stop production in May By Charley Hannagan / The Post-Standard March 17, 2010, 9:06AM 021709Sherrill3db.JPGDick Blume / The Post-StandardJohn Smoyer in February 2009 picks up stamping forms used to make knives, forks and spoons at Sherrill Manufacturing. The plant will stop production in May.Sherrill, NY--Unable to compete with cheaper products imported from China, Sherrill Manufacturing Inc. told workers Tuesday that it is closing its flatware factory.
The closing affects 108 workers, about 80 of whom will lose their jobs.
"It is all contingent on the nature and scope of our ongoing operations. We are certainly going to make every effort to preserve as many positions as possible," company Chief Executive Officer Gregory Owens said in an email.
The company that was the last Central New York maker of forks, knives and spoons, will stop manufacturing on May 15.
The owners plan to mothball the flatware equipment in the hopes that they can restart the factory when the playing field levels between Chinese and American factories, said Owens, who owns the company with Matthew Roberts.
The two bought the sprawling factory in 2005 from Oneida Ltd. when that company ceased manufacturing altogether because it was less expensive to hire Chinese factories to make its products.
However, the two former Oneida Ltd. employees, believed there was a role a smaller factory could play by acting as a backstop for companies who needed to fill unexpected orders and didn’t have time for products to arrive from China.
Sherrill Manufacturing started the factory with a three-year contract to make products for Oneida Ltd. and at one time employed 148 workers.
That contract has since ended.
When the economy collapsed in 2008, the company shut down the factory for several weeks and Owens and Matthews went without pay. Workers were recalled to their jobs early last year, but with a pay cut.
Orders, however, continued to dwindle as the market for flatware declined, and the company recently lost several large customers, said Owens, who is the company’s chief executive officer.
“We’ve just run into a brick wall as far as orders and competition from China,” he said this morning.
Managers told the 108 remaining employees Tuesday night after work that the factory was closing.
“It was very sad,” Owens said. “We’re concerned about everybody in this economy finding a new job.”
The company is working with the New York State Department of Labor to help workers find new jobs, he said.
Sherrill Manufacturing will continue to employ about 20 people in its machine shop, light manufacturing and real estate business, he said. The company has 1 million square-feet of space available and has leased most of it, Owens said.
It will preserve the flatware manufacturing equipment in the hopes that one day—it could be in six months or six years from now—th
