Hallmark Technologies goes under (April 01, 2007)
By Umair Abdul, editorial assistant
Major mold, tool and die company Hallmark Technologies closed its doors on February 15, leaving more than 150 employees out in the cold.
Major mold, tool and die company Hallmark Technologies closed its doors on February 15, leaving more than 150 employees out in the cold.
Although the Windsor, Ont.-based company has not made an official comment to the press about the closure, day shift employees were reportedly told in late February that the company had declared bankruptcy. All employee activity was ceased at both of Hallmark’s Windsor facilities, and employees were quickly notified of the situation.
“They’ve completely gone bankrupt, everything is going to end up being liquidated,” confirmed Dan Moynahan, incoming president of the Canadian Association of Mouldmakers (CAMM). Due to the company’s financial situation, Moynahan believed that employees would not receive their vacation pay or back wages for the last weeks. Prior to the company’s closure, employees could also buy Class B, non-voting shares with a guaranteed 10 per cent return. Moynahan said employees would not be able to retrieve their funds.
Many disgruntled employees have been speaking out against the company’s abrupt closure.
CAMM’s Moynahan noted that there was a combination of factors that led to the company’s bankruptcy. “What caused them to go under was they really couldn’t be competitive anymore, the lack of investment in new capital equipment, and a very large overhead,” he said.
Moynahan worked for Hallmark for 20 years before moving on to helm Windsor’s Platinum Tool Technologies Inc.
Some of the employees with Hallmark Technologies had been with the company since its infancy. “The city is really hurting big time in the mold area,” he said. “Where are these people going to get jobs?”
There is also the fear that the closure will have a “snowball effect” on the subcontractors who are owed money by the bankrupt moldmaker. The assets can be liquidated to reimburse secured creditors, but Hallmark owed nearly $35 million to unsecured creditors.
An offer to purchase the bankrupt moldmaker for $8.8 million by an American businessman was not accepted by the company’s bankruptcy trustee.