Industrial group to sell Vermont machine tool shops

SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – The company that closed the former industrial giants Fellows Corp. and Bryant Grinder Corp. last week has no plans to reopen them.

The Goldman Industrial Group announced in a release Friday that it had filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

The company has hired a consultant to oversee the Chapter 11 process for Goldman, and, according to the release, to “supervise the sale of the Vermont companies” and the Maine-based subsidiary, Hill-Loma Inc.

“The company has been actively seeking funding from its lenders which, if obtained, would have enabled the company to avoid or postpone the business shutdowns,” the release said.

“That financing was not obtained.”

The merged Fellows Corp. and Bryant Grinder Corp., the last of Springfield’s once mighty but long-struggling machine tool industry, closed its doors Wednesday. About 85 workers lost their jobs.

Goldman, under the supervision of restructuring consultant Daniel F. Dooley, of Morris-Anderson & Associates Ltd., plans to hire an investment banker to market Fellows and Bryant.

Also going up for sale will be the other companies that helped establish Springfield as a pioneer in precision-tools, Jones & Lamson and J&L Metrology.

“It is the company’s intent to sell these subsidiaries as soon as possible,” the statement said. The company will market Hill-Loma in Gorham, Maine, on its own.

Neither Dooley nor company officials returned calls to the Boston headquarters of Goldman, nor at the local plant, where phones were not answered Thursday or Friday.

“The number one concern is going to be the people who have been laid off and making sure they get what they need,” said Bob Flint, the executive vice president for the Springfield Region Chamber of Commerce. “There are a lot of people that need help now.”

The Rutland Herald newspaper has received several calls since Wednesday’s shop closing from midwestern companies that do business with Fellows and Bryant and are wondering whether the parts they’ve ordered will ever arrive.