Here at SBYnews we try to cover, and, explain the realities of life. We don't distort data nor do we throw-up a smoke screen to try and hide or deny the facts. We have no qualms about publishing our data as we simply want to look after the average Joe Blow to make sure he or she is getting a fair hand-shake in life.
So whether or not it is republican, democratic, or independent party leadership we feel compelled to let you know just what has transpired within our local economy. So Elkhart Indiana thinks it has been hit by hard times? Guess again, we've been hit by just as hard of times!
As April 15th - Tea Party Rebellion - is upon us, please keep these stats in mind. And my advise to those politicos who are currently in office - you had better take heed to what has transpired - all 57 of them - because they might just come back to haunt you!
Area Plant Closings – (Free Enterprise)
Wicomico, Worcester, Somerset, & Dorchester Counties
NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED
1. Sealy Upholster Co. unknown – best estimate 150+
employees
2. Field Container Corp. unknown- best estimate 150+
3. Dresser Industries/Haliburton 500 – 600 displaced workers
Facility moved to Austin, Texas
At production peak the planted
employed over 1000 employees
4. Shawnee Homes unknown – best estimate 150+
5. Salisbury Engineering Moved entire operation State of
Delaware
6. Heinemann Electric Located in Northwood
Industrial Park – unknown
amount of displaced workers.
7. Moore Business Forms 148 displaced workers. Factory announced
Shutdown on 07-27-94 in Snowhill, MD
8. Campbell Soup – Salisbury, MD 604 displaced workers
9. Campbell Soup – Swanson Divison 245 displaced workers – Pocomoke, MD
10. Campbell Soup – Mrs. Paul’s Kitchen 200 displaced workers – Crisfield, MD
11. Montgomery Ward – Salisbury, MD 110 displaced workers – Centre Salisbury Mall
12. Gant Shirt Factory – Salisbury, MD 250 displaced workers
(At one point in 60’s 2nd largest
Shirt factory in the world)
13. Jodi Shirt Company 100 displaced workers
14. Delmar Sportswear 90 displaced workers – Pusey family owned
15. Ford Laboratory – Salisbury, MD 70 displaced workers
16. Grumman Corp, - Salisbury, MD 401 displaced workers. Employed 523 at peak
17. Peninsula Press – Salisbury, MD 45 displaced workers
18. Preston Trucking Co. – Preston, MD unknown, filed for Bankruptcy Protection
(Referred to as 131 Line)
19. Chesapeake Bay Plywood, Pocomoke 500 employees – plywood plant shutdown
20. Ruddy Duck – Cambridge, MD 100 displaced employees
21. Airpax Industries – Cambridge, MD 500 – (best estimate) At peak it employed 1500
(moved lighting division to Matamoras,
Mexico)
22. Service Merchandise – Mt Hermon Rd, 75 displaced workers – now Dove Point Facility
(Land purchased by Government Entity)
23. Purity Bacon – Salisbury, MD unknown – South Division Street- now College
(land now owned by State government)
24. E.S. Adkins & Co. – Salisbury, MD unknown – Rt. 13, North Salisbury Blvd.
(land and buildings being leased by
Wicomico County Government)
25. Masten Home Center – Fruitland, MD unknown – closed in Salisbury & Pocomoke
26. IMS – (MVP.com) – Salisbury, MD 40-50 employees – WBOC reporting
(Old Cambell Soup Bldg. at Lake St.)
27. Powellville Garment Factory closure announced 02/01 – 100 estimated empl.
(located in Powellville, MD)
28. Food Depot – Old Salisbury Mall unknown – last bastion to exodus Old Mall
29. Ames – Rt. 50 & Tilghman, Salisbury unknown – announced closure 11-14-01
30. Crown, Cork & Seal – Fruitland, MD unknown – announced plant closure 01-14-02
31. Central Tractor – Fruitland, MD unknown – announced closure 01-14-02
32. Naticoke Homes, Greenwood, DE unknown - announced closure 07-15-02
33. Stoney Point Decoy Factory – Crisfield 35-40 employees at peak, DT Reporter Cording
34. Tyson Foods, Berlin, MD 600 emloyees – announced closure 04-19-03
35. Black & Decker – Easton, MD 1400 employees – announced closure 04-29-03
Announced moving plant to Brazil
& Mexico (Daily Times reporter
John Vandiver)
36. Pine Country Corp. – Pocomoke, MD 35 employees (Daily Times reported 10-26-03)
Operations ceased 09/03
37. Chesapeake Hardwood Mill 40 employees – Peggy Neck Road - closed 2002
Princess Anne, MD
38. Salisbury Steel Products Inc. 35 employees – per rep. C.J. Townsend - closed
909 Boundary St. Salisbury, MD. 08-03
39. US Airways – Salisbury Airport constantly-in-and out of financial trouble, filed
Bankruptcy – reorganization in
Process – abandoned flights to BWI
40. True Value Hardware unknown – announced closure 03-04 Isabella
Street, Salisbury, MD
41. Office Max – Salisbury, MD unknown – announced closure 02-04
42. Helovet Pharma – Salisbury, MD unknown – announced closure 03-05
Northwood Industrial Park
43. Giant Food, N. Salisbury Blvd, 75 displaced workers – announced closure 03-05
44. Super Deep Discount Drugs unknown – announced closure 10-22-06
Salisbury, MD – across from Giant
45. JV Wells, Inc., Sharptown, MD Employed over 100 – largest MD Timber Co.
46. Nanticoke Seafood – Nanticoke, MD unknown – was owned by Booth Fisheries, Rich
Sea Pak, and most recently by
Cape May Canners before moving NJ
47. Islandic Seafood, Cambridge, MD 300 displaced workers – 03-07, an additional 122
that were laid off by end of 2007
48. Brunswick – Bayliner/Maxum 180 displaced workers – announced closure
One of Wicomico’s largest employers
Moved to North Carolina spurred by
Tax incentives to move from area
49. Americhem Inc. 30 layoffs – announced closure 10-23-07
Northwood Industrial Park
Salisbury, MD.
50. Powerwave Technology Inc. 100 layoffs – at peak employed 300 – closed
Rt. 50 & Walston Switch Road
Salisbury, MD. Closed 08-08
51. Oddi Atlantic – Salisbury, MD 70 layoffs – 09-26-08 – (Reported by DT reporter
Gwenn Garland) Owned by Iceland Co. that purchased Atlantic
Hastings Printing Co.
52. Invista Plant – Seaford, DE 400 layoffs – a subsidiary of Kansas based Koch
Industries – (former DuPont Nylon plant)
Announcement made 10-16-08 per
AP reporter, Randal Chase
53. Boscov’s Department Stores unknown – announced Bankruptcy filing 08-04-08
Salisbury, MD - may be spared
54. Circuit City – Salisbury, MD 30 layoffs – announced closure 01-12-09
Rt. 13 N. Salisbury, MD
55. Bob Smith Automotive, Easton MD unknown – closure 03-09 – GM Dealer
GM Giant Dealership in Easton
GMC Giant Dealership in Federalsburg
56. Schaefer & Strohminger, Cambridge unknown – closure slated for 04-30-09
GM, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep Dealer
57. Boater’s World – Salisbury, MD. 15 employees – closure announced 04-09
Rt. 13, North Salisbury Blvd. 75 employees in Denton, MD
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
22 comments:
Nanticoke Homes was employing aprox 500 workers when it closed . At its peak around 800
Most of these are old. I'm sure you could make a similar list for any city. Businesses come and go.
If you want to make an impact, you need to show that recent activity is far greater than prior activity. Thus, you should divide this list by year to show that this year is worse.
As for the "Tea party", I fail to see any connection. Isn't that about tax and government spending?
Joe did you know that Bayliner and Americhem (#48 & 49 ) moved to the same county in NC
Beezer, for comparison, please post the companies that have opened or expanded during this time and the number of jobs generated.
Thank you.
Ref: 9:22 Post - Thank You!! I'll update that number.
Ref: 10:11 Post
I've been tracking this data for years as I wanted to ascertain the effects of NAFTA, GAT, and business taxes on our local economy.
I would rather leave the burden of additional information gathering to the Federal,State, or local agencies. They should have doing this all along, especially, the Department of Planning.
FYI - I received a telephone call one day from a Private Industry Council member requesting my list. They wanted access to my information because they could not find a record keeping system for the number of business closures in our area. So when you see them publish this data. . .it was actually collected by me.
In fact, I'm not aware of any Federal, State, or local agency that keeps track of this data. The only time you hear is when a newcomer business is announced- and an elected official is making a pitch that he helped to create additional employment by attracting a new business.
I say let the facts speak for themselves.
And as you can tell - it isn't pretty.
Beezer
Good God!
Where in the world did you get this list?
It's as if we have been hit by an atomic bomb - economically speaking.
Thank-you Beezer.
How about the buggy whip factory that closed in 1912?
You are an abject retard. Regardless of your idiotic insinuations the vast majority of these closings had nothing whatsoever to do with the local economy or local municipal tax policies, but were based on corporate level decisions to eliminate divisions in secondary or tertiary markets (i.e. the Eastern Shore), due to national or global macro-economic changes in their industries and business models.
In the scenarios where business assets were transferred to new locations, most of these moves did not involve the acquisition of new industrial real estate, but were simply lateral transfers to pre-existing facilities already in operation by the corporations.
Some of these businesses (but only a few) did relocate partially due to more favorable tax policies in other states, but this was State of Maryland vs. other states and not related to specific Salisbury or Wicomico tax policies.
We have lost business because gas and electric utility costs were cheaper (substantially so in some cases) in other states, also our limited municipal water and sewer capacity has doomed many possible industrial projects before they even got off the ground.
Another reason (and a painful one) is that some employers requiring advanced technical skills were simply not satisfied with the quality of the available Eastern Shore area work force in terms of education and skill levels, but these were a minority.
I know you're trying to make your little laundry list of closed businesses as impressive as possible, but to those of us in the middle of these processes you're just a clown, and I hope no group is foolish enough to accept your nonsense at face value.
I dont see one thing on the list that is not true.
A lot of these businesses closed to relocate for cheaper labor.
I only know of a few businesses that have opened up since the major companies that where listed.
Mc Donalds,Minimum wage, Wal-mart,minimum wage and the new Royal Farm store west of town and hell that keeps the beach crowd from going through salisbury at all. Thats the busiest place outside of town i have seen in a while and they pay the minimum wage im sure. Good ol salisbury has no union jobs that pay working people a salary they can live on. But you do have your share of fair haired boys who work for there freinds .
How much longer can the few who argue the list stay in business with no one making over the minimum wage, except for your buddys.
With-out house building the eastern shore is dead, job wise.
Re: 12:28 Post
You are obviously affiliated with either Wayne Gilchrest re-election campaign, or some other quasi-moto economic development committee that tries to hype up our locality in order attract businesses to our area.
Guess what. . . you've been blogged
WOW! Beazer where did you obtain this list?
I knew we had lost quite a few manufacturing jobs but when you scan the list it is incredible.
Just incredible to see all of these gone.
The list certainly makes a compelling case for further investigation into this subject.
The who, what, when, where, and, why - should be answered regarding these massive amounts of closures.
I'll say something else for this site. SBYnews is the most informative piece of media I have ever encountered regarding the local scene.
Great job SBYnews. Your in-depth detail continues to amaze me.
Cashew
RESPONSE TO 12:28 POSTING
I would not be a bit surprised if your real identity was none other than our present Wicomico County Economic Development Director.
In which case - your FIRED!!!!
I never realized just how many jobs our area has lost until I read this post today.
Being born and raised here I can clearly tell you that these businesses did exist at one time.
It's just mind-boggling when you actually see them listed though.
This list obviously shows a myriad of closings, but what are yout trying to prove? Many of these are older closings. A better list would be to gather how many jobs have been lost as opposed to gained during a certain time period. Still, it does show and reflect the decline of jobs, especailly manufactureing, which is a nation wide problem
anonymous 6:00, you clearly have no clue about economics.
YOU start sending us a list of business openings and the amount of jobs they have brought, versus the higher paying jobs that have been lost.
Under the leadership we currently have, County or City, the Eastern Shore is crumbling. Unless someone opens their eyes and starts to LEAD this County, as I have said in the past, we will become a Ghost Town with tumble weeds overtaking the streets.
You're NOT getting this information from the other MSM and that's the scary part. They want to report on fluff pieces to keep everyone happy. Sadly the reality is, there are tons of people out of jobs and losing their homes because there's nowhere to turn here.
Now, can it be turned around? Absolutely. However, the leadership here in this County isn't experienced enough to take the bull by the hornms and spend money on PROFESSIONALS who can reach out to other businesses and encourage them to relocate here.
So before you challenge facts that have been provided here, start opening your eyes to challenging those CURRENTLY in their jobs as County Executive, Mayors, County Council Members, City Council Members, Delegates, Senators and Congressmen instead of only doing so when it's election time and they blow smoke up your A$$.
See how I'm talking, THAT'S LEADERSHIP!
A number of us are veterans of two of the aforementioned plants.
12:28, I was once misinformed like you until I got it twice, Dresser And Airpax. BTW, many of these companies were profitable when they left.
Heinneman's also went to Mexico according to two former employee friend of mine who were also canned from Airpax.
It is very hard for you free market idiots to believe it can be very hard to start over when you're fifty.
Working for long term for an employer is like tenant farming; they get all the profits, they will always own the business, but you go through the rough patches, too.
Have a little compassion for your neighbor. It is my great hope for me and others after me to have it as good as my father had it.
We are losing our jobs because we have short sighted ignorant individuals as our elected representatives. These people at both the city, county, state, and federal level are being elected and re-elected because they are writing checks from the public treasury and buying votes. To whom you may ask, well, for starters, the poor and stupid, those that think that abortion is ok as birth control, the ederly who can't make ends meet, and people that think that the enviroment is more important than putting food on the table.
Of course the answer is to give multinational corporations whatever they want. They will take care of us right? They wouldn't move offshore or to another state because it's cheaper right? And any company would always practice good stewardship and never pollute the bay because it's bad business right?
And another thing, every person that reads this, no matter what you believe about any of the above issues, has to realize something very quickly.
We are in serious trouble, so we have to elect someone and give them the complete power over our lives and our economy. He and his friends in power would never do anything to hurt us, we have to give him whatever he wants, after all, he is a great orator, and he wants what best for us. He just sounds and looks so good. I really believe that he cares about me and wants to help me. As a matter of fact, I feel a tingle up my leg when he speaks.
Ok, so it's getting hard to keep a straight face at this point....
So what is the lesson? The lesson is that all of YOU people need to look in the mirror. Those plant closures are the voters fault plain and simple. We need change alright, but it's not going to come from the people we have been electing at the county level.
Guess what folks, if they have been in office, it's their fault.
Vote ALL incumbents out, and I'm not just talking at the county level, I'm talking about the people that make the laws at the state level.
We need lower tax rates to get our manufacturing jobs back, and
(sidebar-Hey buggywhip commenter, you are a freaking moron! Electronic componets aren't buggy whips jaggoff!-end sidebar)
we need LAWS that PUNISH corporations that offshore.
The only problem with this scenario is that Obama Hussein is a globalist. He thinks that jobs in China and other foreign countries are more important than jobs for all of YOU MORONS!
...but that's ok, don't listen to me...just keep on doing what you've been doing. Keep on electing the same old tired crooked stupid windbags at the county and state level.
How's that workin' out for ya?
Businesses come and go in communities all over the US, and the Salisbury area has done better than most other communities in the region with similar demographics in maintaining it's industrial base, or replacing it in some cases, with other industries.
The reasons the businesses on that "list" left or discontinued operations are all over the map, and don't relate to local leadership failures nearly as much as they do the national and worldwide changes in the way they do business.
Anyone with a shred of common sense who keeps up with the news understands this. In some few instances there may be exclusively local reasons why a business left or failed, but for the vast majority of the businesses on that list the reasons for leaving or failure have nothing to do with local government policies or leadership.
The cost of doing business, i.e., property tax, inventory tax, personal property tax, corp. licensing fees, state, county and municipal fees must be considered.
When it becomes more economically attractive to do business elsewhere, guess what, a company will relocate, plain and simple.
Gimme a break! I live in Elkhart Indiana. In the past year alone, Elkhart county has lost close to 20,000 jobs. Our unemployment rate is 20%. Take your number from the past year not the past 20 years. Yes the whole country is in shambles and there is a huge amount of people unemployed, but your statement is wrong in saying that you've taking a harder hit than Elkhart. Elkhart's figures are from the past year. Your figures are from the past century! Get your facts right or don't write it.
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