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End of an Era
Bridgeport Machines lays off 140 workers before closing next month
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Business New Haven
8/19/2002
By: BNH
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BRIDGEPORT - The Park City's manufacturing sector absorbed a new body blow when Bridgeport Machines Inc. laid off 140 of its 225 employees in preparation for its closing.
Company President Richard E. Clemens acknowledged in published reports that the financially ailing, 64-year-old, metal-cutting tool manufacturer would “phase down” by the end of September.
The layoffs applied to sales and service center staff in suburbs of Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit, as well as 80 Bridgeport workers, mostly in salaried support jobs, according to a company spokesperson.
Because of the company's financial condition, Clemens said, the laid-off employees will not receive severance pay and also will not receive money for accrued vacation time.
While employees knew the company was up for sale, Clement said, they did not know which bidder would win out.
Of the seven interested bidders, Clemens said only one did not want to continue to operate the Bridgeport plant. It turned out that bidder, American Capitol Strategies of Bethesda, Md., is now in the process of buying a portion of the company's assets.
The company will continue to manufacture products, make deliveries and service parts up to its closing date.
Clemens became president in February of this year following the resignation of Harold Pinto, who joined the company in November. The Bridgeport company, Clemens said, is the last surviving portion of the Goldman Industrial Group, which bought Bridgeport Machines in August 1999.
On February 14, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On July 19, a Delaware bankruptcy court approved the sale of certain assets to BPT Holdings Inc., a division of American Capital Strategies Ltd.
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