Looking for a buyer: The CEO and chairman of Columbian Home Products hopes the company will be sold versus closure of the factory off of Beech Street. Staff photo by Joseph C. Garza
Columbian Home Products LLC, has sent a mandatory notice of layoffs to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, but the company's top executive said he hopes the company will be sold, not closed.
Dick Ryan, CEO and chairman of Columbian Home Products, said the company is in advanced talks to sell the Terre Haute plant and has interest from several parties.
He wouldn't offer specifics as to when a deal might come through, but he said larger home-goods conglomerates have taken interest.
"We're in the process of trying to sell the business. If that doesn't materialize, we would face a closure later this year," Ryan said. "But this isn't nearly as final as the notice we're required to give the state would say it is.
"We've made it clear to our employees that we're going through a process (and) talking with a number of people — we've had an investment banking firm working on this for five or six months — and that if we don't find a buyer for some or all of our businesses, we'd start winding things down by the end of November."
A layoff would affect Columbian's 82 Terre Haute employees and possibly more at its Snow River and Joyce Chen plants in Crandon, Wisconsin, and Machlin, Connecticut, respectively, Ryan said.
Columbian Home Products produces home goods and kitchenware such as pots, pans and its popular “Graniteware” pattern of enameled steel cookware, according to the company's website.
Ryan said the company has been very successful with its products over the years but a number of economic factors have made operating a standalone home-goods business difficult.
"A whole bunch of forces came together at the same time that have it difficult to operate this as a standalone business in its current size," Ryan said. " ... It's just not economically viable in its current structure."
Columbian opened in Terre Haute in 1902 and was once the company's corporate headquarters.
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