Saving 50 Jobs––

Former Kendro Execs Spin Off A New Company

By Kaaren Valenta

Former executives of Kendro Laboratory Products have formed a new company, Tier One, LLC, that will enable 50 skilled manufacturing positions associated with the machining operations to remain in Newtown.

The company will specialize in rotor assemblies and motors that will be sold to Kendro, a manufacturer of medical centrifuges, and in high-quality, highly engineered parts for other businesses.

Earlier this year it was announced that Kendro would be closing its facility at 31 Pecks Lane in Newtown in order to consolidate centrifuge production at its new worldwide headquarters in Asheville, N.C. The closure would have resulted in the loss of more than 230 jobs at the Newtown plant.

The three new principals of the new company are Mike Iassogna, R. Joe Young, and Rick Hall. Three other former Kendro managers, Don Stankus, Stan Montefusco, and Ted Turiano, are investors in the business, which provides “machining and assembly solutions.”

Mr Iassogna said Kendro had planned to outsource its machining operations after it moved its centrifuge production operation to North Carolina. Tier One now will do the machining for Kendro.

“Kendro benefits from all the talent and experience that is needed to make the highly technical parts that are critical to the functioning of their products,” Mr Iassogna said.

Mr Young said the arrangement benefits everyone involved.

“Tier One is very excited that we were able to come up with an arrangement that provides us with an opportunity to acquire a business with a successful 50-year history, enables Kendro to continue to be able to provide cost-effective high-quality products without disruption, and provides continued employment to this experienced and talented workforce,” he said.

The owners of Tier One, LLC turned to Ridgefield Bank to provide financing to assist with the purchase of the manufacturing equipment from Kendro and for working capital for the new company. Tier One, LLC will lease space in the Pecks Lane plant. Kendro’s centrifuge operations will begin moving out in two weeks.

“Ridgefield Bank is strongly committed to serving the financial needs of local companies that make Fairfield County a vital employment center. Tier One offered us a terrific opportunity to show that commitment,” said Gary Smith, president and CEO of Ridgefield Bank.

Tier One already has two customers, Kendro and Dade Behring of Brookfield.

“Both operations were part of DuPont until 1995 when they were sold,” Mr Iassogna explained. “Dade Behring does clinical chemistry analysis. We make parts for their analyzers. We excel at putting deep holes in titanium and aluminum [parts],” he said.

Tier One will use what is known as “lean” manufacturing principles to fill very small orders and deliver them quickly, saving their customers the cost of maintaining inventories of these parts, he explained.

Tier One will use 35,000 square feet of the 120,000-square-foot facility on Pecks Lane and will look for additional customers in the biomedical, aerospace, and similar industries.

“Anything that is highly engineered and critical functioning would be a potential customer,” Mr Iassogna said. He said that if the building is sold by Kendro, the company would attempt to lease from the new owner.

“But if we get forced out [by the sale], we would relocate locally because this is where our workforce is,” he said.

About 40 of Kendro’s Newtown employees were offered the opportunity to relocate to Asheville, but only about six of them have decided to do so, according to Mr Iassogna, who was the plant manager.

“Kendro provided a very fair severance package,” Mr Young said. “Now some of the same employees will be working for the new company. It’s a win-win situation for them.”

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. 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.