Lenox plant closing Jan. 31, owner says
Lenox Inc. sealed the fate of the lone remaining Lenox stemware crystal factory in the United States, disclosing Friday that it would indeed close its manufacturing plant in Mt. Pleasant at the end of January.
The company, a subsidiary of Brown-Forman Corp. of Louisville, Ky., originally announced in October that it might close the plant and leave 158 people without jobs.
"Closing the Mt. Pleasant plant was a very difficult decision for us," said Jerry Ciszewski, president of manufacturing for Lenox, in a statement. "Our marketplace in the U.S. has become more casual in lifestyle, and fine crystal stemware sales are declining. ... We view this trend as a long-term shift away from the crystal stems that we manufacture at Mt. Pleasant."
The company manufactures crystal stemware glassware and gift items for the Lenox and Gorham brands at the Mt. Pleasant factory.
The company said it will continue to market crystal glassware and gift items under those brands by importing production from Europe.
The company did have one piece of good news for the Mt. Pleasant area, saying its retail store adjacent to the local factory will remain open.
But production at the manufacturing facility itself will be phased out over the next few months, likely starting within the next two weeks, said Lenox spokesman Phil Lynch.
The last day of production will be Jan. 31.
About 130 production workers at the plant are represented by Local 597 of the American Flint Glass Workers union. Local 24, another unit of the same union, represents 35 skilled trade workers.
James O'Connor, president of Local 597, recently criticized the company for not making any serious effort to keep the plant open or sell it to another party that might continue operations.
Union officials were not available for comment yesterday.
However, Ciszewski noted that officials from the union and company management had "worked hard" to improve productivity, reduce costs and invest in the company's stemware production processes over the past 10 years.
"We were successful at reducing costs and becoming more competitive in our global crystal stemware manufacturing environment," he said. "But unfortunately, the demand for fine crystal stemware has steadily declined as the marketplace evolves to the more casual consumer lifestyle."
Even additional concessions offered by union officials were not enough to save the plant, said Lenox spokesman Lynch.
"It was not an insignificant offer, but it just wasn't enough to close the gap between the cost of production in Mt. Pleasant and what we can get from having it made for us overseas," he said. "We just can't make the numbers work anymore at Mt. Pleasant."
The company said it will offer severance packages to employees, including one week's salary for each year spent with the company up to a maximum of 26 weeks. The packages also include two months of paid medical benefits and job search and assistance services.
Once the plant is shuttered, the building will either be mothballed, or offered for sale, Lynch said. He said there are no plans to move the production equipment.
When the Lenox plant opened in 1970, it was the first glass factory built in the United States devoted solely to the production of hand-blown lead crystal.
In 1994, the production of Lady Ann stemware, a well-known line of wine goblets, was brought from Germany and added to production at the local plant.
Since 1983, Lenox has been a subsidiary of Brown-Forman, a distiller best known for Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey, Southern Comfort, Canadian Mist, Korbel California Champagnes and Bolla Wines.
Besides its beverage segment, Brown-Forman's consumer durables segment also produces and markets Lenox, Dansk and Gorham tableware and giftware, along with Hartmann Luggage.
Along with the Mt. Pleasant operation, Brown-Forman's Lenox division includes plants in Pomona, N.J., and Kinston, N.C., which primarily manufacture china. A plant in Oxford, N.C., produces giftware and collectibles.
