Owner committed to keeping Kingsbury afloat
As published on page one of the September 15, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.
The Keene-based Kingsbury Corp. is down but not out, according to owner Iris A. Mitropoulis, who speaks with confidence of a recovery by the 117-year-old manufacturing firm.
On Monday afternoon 12 cars were scattered in the roomy parking lot of the company's Marlboro Street headquarters and manufacturing plant; patches of grass peeked through cracked asphalt.
An auction of the company's assets has been scheduled for early October at the request of one of the company's creditors.
But there is still time for the company to secure a contract that would deflect the wolves from the door, according to Mitropoulis.
"Our industry always goes through cycles," she said in an interview Wednesday, citing analysts who believe American manufacturing is coming back following a dismal period that has seen a growth of production overseas.
Kingsbury specializes in building large, custom-made, high-precision machines that are commonly used in other factories for mass production; they sell for millions of dollars.
Companies that might buy a machine from Kingsbury, such as automobile manufacturers, are recovering from the economic slump and are starting to design new products, Mitropoulis said -- and that's the kind of activity that could lead to business for the Keene company.
"We've been inundated with quotes over the past six months," she said.
Kingsbury -- which once employed hundreds -- now has 30 employees on furlough and 15 to 18 people working part-time, Mitropoulis said.
She was in Keene Wednesday to meet with potential customers, she said, and hopes to not only call back the furloughed workers soon but start hiring more people.
Kingsbury was recently chosen by Simmons Machine Tool Corp. of Albany, N.Y., to produce some of the company's products. That contract is on hold due to concerns about Kingsbury's future, Mitropoulis said, but she hopes to resolve the problems soon.
Mitropoulis bought Kingsbury in 1998 from interests that had owned it locally for generations.
"I convinced the sellers that I was going to keep Kingsbury here and thriving, and I feel serious responsibility to the company and its employees," she said, adding that some workers have been with Kingsbury for their entire careers.
Kingsbury has been the subject of a number lawsuits filed by creditors attempting to collect on unsecured debts during the recession.
In June 2010, Stapels Manufacturing of Troy, Mich., filed suit for $27,206 in Cheshire County Superior Court.
In August of that year, the court awarded Stapels the unpaid balance of $14,146.49.
The debt still has not been paid, according to Mark Stapels, who recently stepped down as president and passed control of the company on to his son.
Stapels said he regrets that he did not turn to legal means to collect on the debt sooner, rather than waiting almost two years while Mitropoulis kept promising the debt would be paid.
But Mitropoulis said her company works with more than 200 vendors like Stapels, and most of them have not given up on Kingsbury.
Fritz Zuegg, the credit manager for Massachusetts-based manufacturer the Hope Group -- which has supplied Kingsbury with tubes and fittings for its machines -- spoke highly of Mitropoulis, who he says has kept in touch about Kingsbury's two-year-old debt to his company, even when there wasn't much to say.
"Quite frankly I admire her pluck," he said. "I don't know how she's been able to do it."
Kingsbury has done business with the Hope Group for decades, according to Zuegg.
"It sounds like they might be getting close to making some headway, and it would be a shame if that didn't happen," he said.
tagged with: business, economy, Keene N.H., Kingsbury Corporation, manufacturing
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