Kendro Laboratory Products––

One Of Newtown’s Largest Employers Announces Move To N.C.

By Kaaren Valenta

Kendro Laboratory Products, long one of Newtown’s largest employers, is closing its plant on Pecks Lane, becoming the fourth major manufacturing company to leave Newtown in the past three years.

“This is a huge blow to us,” said Elizabeth Stocker, Newtown’s community development director. “Kendro was the second largest employer in the community and among the top ten taxpayers. This is very unwelcome news.”

A letter received by First Selectman Herb Rosenthal on May 16 announced the closing.

“The entire facility will be closed,” Kevin Lech, vice president of human resources for SPX-Kendro, said in the letter. “This action is expected to be permanent.”

Kendro, a global leader in the manufacture of centrifuges and other sample-preparation products and services for the biomedical industry, was acquired by SPX Corporation in July 2001. The worldwide headquarters was moved from Newtown to Ashville, N.C., where Kendro was absorbed into SPX’s Revco division, which was based there.

“Because the name Kendro was so well known, [the division] took the Kendro name,” explained Tina Betlejewski, SPX manager of corporate communications.

Kendro’s net assets on the town’s 2002 grand list were $10,953,060, making it the town’s sixth largest taxpayer. According to Newtown Tax Collector Carol Mahoney, Kendro’s taxes were $194,898 for the building and land; $143,401 for personal property, mostly equipment, a total of $338,300 for 2003.

The Newtown plant was constructed in 1948 by Ivan Sorvall Inc, a private company based at that time in Norwalk. In 1972 the firm’s corporate offices were moved to Newtown. Over the years the plant at 31 Pecks Lane was expanded several times, under several different corporate names, and had as many as 375 employees.

About 230 employees currently are at the Newtown plant. “Somewhere between 25 and 30 of them are being offered relocations [to other facilities],” Ms Betlejewski said.

The rest of the employees will be let go according to a separation schedule, beginning with 61 positions on July 18. Most of the rest will be gone by the end of the year.

Although she would not discuss specifics, Ms Betlejewski said SPX was a major corporation with services available to assist employees who are losing their jobs.

Consolidating Operations

For more than two decades, from 1973 to 1996, the plant was owned E.I. DuPont de Nemours of Wilmington, Del., and operated as part of its medical products division. When DuPont divested that division, Sorvall Products LP was spun off and merged with Heraeus Instruments in 1997 to become Kendro Laboratory Products, headquartered in Newtown with 1,200 employees around the world.

In November 2000, Kendro acquired CARR Separation, Inc, a centrifuge-manufacturing company based in Franklin, Mass. Eight months later SPX Corporation announced that was purchasing Kendro for $320 million in cash and would make it part of Revco Technologies, SPX’s life-sciences business unit based in Ashville.

Ms Betlejewski said an ongoing evaluation of the market and the company’s facilities after the purchase led to the decision to close the Newtown plant. “It made sense to consolidate,” she said.

The employees were notified on May 16 at a meeting held at the Fireside Inn.

Carol Mahoney said the immediate impact of the closing would be the loss of the $143,401 in personal property taxes for the manufacturing equipment, because the $194,898 in real estate taxes would continue when the property is put up for sale.

The figures do not, however, reflect the personal and financial loss felt by employees of the company, many of whom live in Newtown.

Steve Belair, 49, had worked for the company for 32 years and admits that he was stunned by the closing even though, in hindsight, the latest merger had created some signs that it might be coming.

“I’ll be looking for employment, but the job market isn’t plentiful right now,” Mr Belair said. “It is going to be tough. Hopefully, I’ll find something.”

The Kendro letter to Mr Rosenthal said the affected employees at the Newtown facility are not represented by any union and have no bumping or seniority rights.

In the past three years Newtown has lost three other large manufacturing companies: Newtown Manufacturing, Heise-Dresser, and DeVivo Industries.

Newtown Manufacturing, which made screw machine products, was sold to a Plymouth, Conn., company that moved all operations out of Newtown in 2000; the plant on South Main Street is still for sale.

Heise-Dresser, a manufacturer of commercial pressure gauges and other high-tech products, left Newtown in 2001. Its plant at 153 South Main Street was sold to Peter D’Amico for $1.74 million and converted into office space.

Last December DeVivo Industries, a manufacturer of heavy metal equipment on High Bridge Road, moved its operations to Waterbury. The building is still available for sale or lease.

The trend is a reversal of the late 1990s, when Newtown was attracting new manufacturers such as Neumade Products on Pecks Lane and Sonics and Materials on Church Hill Road.

Mr Rosenthal was he was disappointed to hear that Kendro is leaving.

“It is always disappointing when we hear a business is leaving both for the employees losing jobs or having to relocate, and for the town to lose a taxpayer,” he said. “We don’t have that much industry to begin with.

“Certainly we will do whatever we can to help bring another company to that location,” he said.