Eric Lehman pulled the gate closed on a century of history, as his grandfather’s engraving business ended in bankruptcy.
Lehman (pictured), a tall man with a long pointed mustache, was walking away from Lehman Brothers Inc, a commercial printing business that his grandfather and great-uncle founded in 1910.
The company has no relation to the Wall Street titan Lehman Brothers investment bank, which also toppled into bankruptcy this year.
New Haven’s Lehman Brothers closed on Dec. 9, forcing 20 people out of their jobs. For 98 years, it produced high-end engravings, fine stationery and a lot of wedding invitations.
The company had hoped it might be printing invitations for President-Elect Barack Obama’s inauguration. Instead, on Monday afternoon, the family found itself giving a tour to an attorney from bankruptcy court.
As her dad talked to the lawyer, Lehman’s daughter snapped photos of the engraving machines in the low, white factory at 191 Foster St. in East Rock. As she tried to document the century’s worth of equipment, her camera ran out of batteries. The group resolved to go home for the day.
The loss is too painful to talk about, said Eric Lehman, swinging the gate closed.
His company claims to be the oldest continually run engraving printing press in the country. After struggling in bankruptcy court for four years, the New Haven institution finally collapsed on Dec. 9.
On that day, Michael Daly (pictured) came knocking on the door. It was four o’clock at the end of a work day. He had been appointed by New Haven’s U.S. bankruptcy court to deliver a message: The plant must close.
Daly took the keys and changed the locks.
The plant’s 20 workers had already gone home, said David Perkins (pictured), one of the company’s owners. The company called them at their homes. Workers were told they could come back and get their belongings the next day.
One employee said she got word of the layoffs from a message on her answering machine. She had worked there for 30 years. Others had spent 43 years at the plant, she said.
Monday, one workspace (pictured at the top of this story) appeared untouched since the last day of operation. On the machine, pictures of a man fishing caught the light. A wristwatch and pair of glasses hung nearby.
“It’s a shame,” said attorney Daly, surveying the inventory Monday. In his 20 years as a bankruptcy court trustee, this is the fourth time he’s overseen the closing of a Connecticut printing press. He came in to secure the facility, list and sell the inventory, and to make sure the heat is still on so the pipes don’t burst.
As he prepared for liquidation, he let a couple of the owners back in the plant Monday morning. Perkins took a break from loading boxes into his car to give the Independent a tour of the 25,000-square-foot factory.
He picked up a copper die, a small metal plate etched with a design. Die stampers then spread ink on the plate and run it through a machine to make prints.
As he walked through the large, quiet rooms, he pointed to an engraving machine (pictured). It was the first automatic engraving press in the country; the largest engraving machine in the country, too, he said with pride.
His wife, Eve Perkins, is a descendant of Louis Lehman, who founded the company on Court Street along with Isadore Lehman in 1910. The company moved to its current location, a former screw factory, in 1929. The company product, engraved stationery, has changed little since then. Until the end, the plant used equipment from the 1920s. (Click here for a history on the company website.)
As the world changed, the company has struggled to survive. In May 2004, when the company had 30 employees, it filed under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It owed over 50 vendors a total debt of between $1 million and $10 million, according to court records. To make ends meet, the plant let go a half-dozen employees. The case was recently converted to Chapter 7.
What brought the business down?
“The cost of everything,” said Perkins. The company is a union shop. The costs of health care and wages for veteran union workers were hard to keep up with, he said. (A union rep couldn’t be reached as of press time.)
Employees with unpaid wages were asked to file a claim in bankruptcy court, where they’ll join the list of creditors vying for the plant’s assets.
Daly, the trustee, is still deciding if he’ll auction off the equipment or sell it to a private entity. Lehman Brothers owns the equipment and the building, which will be sold.
GHP printers in West Haven has bought the company’s name, said Perkins. GHP “intends to resurrect engraving at their plant,” he said in an email.
Daly said he hopes that by moving the engraving elsewhere, it might provide work for a few laid-off workers who had to spend the holiday season looking for a job.
More NH jobs lost while Johhny fiddles. As long as the cronies get their payoffs I guess eveeryone is happy