K-D Co. of Bingham lays off 35 workers Ames bankruptcy leaves firm in trouble

BANGOR – K-D Co., a small wood products firm in Bingham, has endured two of the bankruptcy reorganizations of Ames Department Stores. Ames’ third filing, however, is bringing the Maine company down, too.

At least 35 of the 50 people who worked there were laid off last week, receiving notice two days before Ames announced it was closing all of its 327 stores, including 20 in Maine.

A spokeswoman for Woodstock Wire Works of Woodstock, Ill., K-D’s parent company, said the Ames account is what funded the Bingham plant’s operations. The company produced wooden lawn and garden accessories, which were sold primarily in the spring but were made throughout the year.

Woodstock Wire Works has a few divisions that are only open seasonally to manufacture lawn and garden products, but the Bingham plant was not one of them. K-D sent products to Ames every week.

“The layoff in Maine is a result of Ames,” said Lisa Knaack, spokeswoman for Woodstock Wire Works. “It is the account that would have carried them throughout the year and kept the factory open throughout the year. Without them, we’re back to [seasonal] lawn and garden [production].”

Knaack said Woodstock had kept its account with Ames during the department store chains’ last two bankruptcies, one in the late 1980s and another in the mid-1990s. This time, she said, Woodstock was aware that Ames was struggling before its August 2001 bankruptcy filing, and tried to collect in advance to ensure that Ames at least paid for some of the inventory.

“We are owed money and we won’t be paid, obviously,” Knaack said. She would not disclose how much the company is owed.

Woodstock does not believe it will shutdown the Bingham facility entirely, she said. The company has business for the first half of the year, and after that, the mill would close until the next orders are in, Knaack said.

“We’re assessing the situation,” she said.

An Ames spokesman did not return a telephone call for comment Tuesday.

Town Manager Violet Tibbets said she is disheartened by the layoffs. She said K-D employees mentioned that they recently shipped new orders to Ames, “and they were shipped back.”

“We won’t have much employment here without them,” said Tibbets about Bingham, which is the home to 1,100 people.

Last fall, Morgan Lumber’s sawmill burned down, and it has not reopened yet, she said. Because of the sawmill’s closure and the subsequent reduction of tax revenue, Bingham selectmen recently raised its tax rate by $4, she said, to cover the school’s expenses.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to this town,” Tibbets said.