Full Text:

Gordon Fraser To Close Its Doors For Good December 31

(with photo)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

Cars overflowed the parking lot and lined the long curving driveway from the

Gordon Fraser Gallery down the hill to Route 25. A large red and white sign

proclaimed "SALE."

Despite the bargains inside, the mood was somber last week as shoppers knew

they were bidding goodbye to a store which has been a tradition in Newtown for

more than two decades.

Geoffrey D. Baldwin, president and general manager, announced recently that

Hallmark Cards, the Kansas City, Mo., corporation which has owned Gordon

Fraser since 1993, has decided to close the Newtown operation and market

Gordon Fraser products -- greeting cards, wrapping paper, stationery and gift

items -- under its British subsidiary, Hallmark Cards Ltd.

"The company wants to expand the Hallmark brand and name into the United

Kingdom and worldwide," Mr Baldwin said. "Gordon Fraser has been doing very

well this year, both (national) sales and the gift shop so the decision (to

close) was all the more frustrating for us. But we understand the company's

logic -- we found ourselves to be redundant."

Twenty-seven employees at the Newtown location will be out of work as of

December 31. But Mr Baldwin said Hallmark has put together "an excellent

severance package" and is making every effort to find jobs for the staff

within the Hallmark organization or with other companies.

"We had a very intensive two-day offsite workshop for the employees and

Hallmark is providing some fairly good outplacement services," he said. "The

company also is sending some people here to work with our employees."

Mr Baldwin, a Shelton resident who has been with Gordon Fraser for only a year

and a half after working in publishing in New York City for 12 years, said

Hallmark operates a distribution center in Enfield which employs between 800

and 900 people.

"The difficulty is that most members of our staff live close (to the Newtown

facility) and are used to a 15-minute commute," he said. "The average employee

has been with us for eight to 12 years. We have two employees that have been

with Gordon Fraser for 25 and 33 years."

An English publisher who was born in 1901, Gordon Fraser started the company

in Cambridge, where he owned a bookshop and art gallery. He produced his first

Christmas cards in the late 1930s, later expanding to include all-occasion

cards, boxed notes, gift wrap and tags.

In 1961, Mr Fraser traveled to the United States to participate in a

stationery gift show in New York City. He set up a 4,000-square-foot facility

in Glen Cove, Long Island, three years later, and employed 20 people. In 1967,

he expanded the facility to 10,000 square feet and his staff grew to 35.

That still wasn't enough space, however, so in the mid-1970s the company

purchased nine acres along Route 25 in Newtown. An architect was commissioned

to design offices, warehousing and a retail store. Set back from the road on a

wooded tract, the new plant boasted handsome wooden siding, beamed ceilings in

the retail shop and private offices and a suite for Mr Fraser complete with

kitchenette and a floor-to-ceiling fireplace in the living room. The original

single story building consisted of 30,000 square feet but, in 1981, a further

12,000 square feet were added to the warehouse.

At that time, the company was employing a staff of 72 in Newtown.

Self-employed sales representatives built up a customer base of over 7,000

independent retailers from coast to coast.

Mr Fraser died in 1973 in an automobile accident and the business was taken

over by his son, Ian. In October 1989 the assets of Gordon Fraser, Inc, were

sold to a consortium led by Andrew Brownsword, who had founded his own company

in Bath in 1971. Product ranges were revamped, a giant warehouse sale was held

in Newtown and the staff was trimmed to 29.

The publishing company office was based in Bath, where most design and product

development took place. In early 1993, just months before the company was

taken over by Hallmark, the company launched its popular Country Companions

gifts collection around the characters of Ed Hedgehog, Tom Mouse, Sam Rabbit

and Badger. The card lines also include Harbonic and Keepsakes.

For the staff at Gordon Fraser in Newtown, the announcement of the corporate

decision to close the Connecticut facility came as a surprise and a

disappointment.

"This has been the nicest place to work," said Shannon Mora, a clerk who has

been with the store for slightly over two years.

Mr Baldwin is seeking the help of the Newtown Chamber of Commerce in providing

him with employment leads for his staff.

"We have quite a few very talented, dedicated, hardworking people that are

looking for a job," he said.

The staff includes executive management, sales support, customer service,

accounting, warehouse/order processing and a staff of six in the gift shop.

Once the facility shuts down completely on December 31, Andrew Brownsword will

be looking for a "good-image," long-term tenant for the property, Mr Baldwin

said.

Potential employers are invited to call Ray Gabani at Gordon Fraser at

426-8174 with job leads.