Final Kent order to be shipped away Up to 70 jobs could be lost as County firm wraps up production

BANGOR – Bankrupt Kent Inc. will complete its final order for children’s sleepwear at a manufacturing facility in the Dominican Republic instead of Fort Kent.

Up to 70 of Kent’s 109 employees could lose their jobs in the next few weeks as production on one shipment of the order winds down and the raw materials for the final two shipments now housed in Fort Kent are transported to the Caribbean country.

This is not a welcome development in this northern Maine town that has a proud 40-year history of producing children’s sleepwear.

“You’d expect that when those materials were shipped in here, they’d leave as finished goods and not as raw materials again,” Donald Guimond, Fort Kent’s town manager, said Friday.

On Friday, Kent received U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval to allow Wormser Corp., a Chicago-based manufacturer, to complete the last two shipments of infant- and toddler-sized blanket sleepers at its Dominican Republic plant. The shipments represent about one-third of a $4 million order by Costco Inc., a wholesale club similar to Sam’s Club.

The move is disheartening for a town that in the last year received assurances from Kent’s management that a white knight was being sought to rescue bankrupt Kent from its financial woes. Memos were sent to employees that encouraged them to “hang in there” because talks with a half-dozen investors or buyers were going well.

“Anytime you have a possibility of losing jobs, it’s a negative,” Guimond said. “There’s a little bit of mixed emotions, there’s a little bit of anger. Everything’s a bit unknown right now.”

Kent employs 109 people, with more than 100 of them in Fort Kent. At least 30 of those workers are subcontracted to Creative Apparel, a Belfast company that leases space at Kent’s plant and produces coats for the U.S. Air Force.

Creative Apparel plans to employ the 30 workers, and is developing plans eventually to double its staff in Fort Kent. Co-owner George Rybarczyk said Friday it will take some time before that happens, but it remains a strong possibility because, “we’ve got the work.”

While Kent is ending production in the next few weeks, it still has ownership of the building and wants to get rid of it. The company began discussions Friday with the Northern Maine Development Commission, the town of Fort Kent and KeyBank, the primary lien holder on the building, to come up with a way to transfer or sell the facility to a municipal entity or group of investors, and then lease it to Creative Apparel.

“The focus is going to be to secure the facility for George [Creative Apparel],” Guimond said.

In the meantime, Kent and its primary creditor, Century Business Capital Corp., are developing a “transition time” budget to cover expenses until production ends, said Michael Gans, president of Kent, on Friday. Kent is operating with a loan from Century that runs out before July 23, and talks have started to extend the loan for another 60 days. A bankruptcy court hearing on the budget is scheduled for July 23.

Gans said he also is talking with Wormser about purchasing certain assets of Kent, such as excess raw materials that no longer are needed. Wormser’s chief financial officer, Scott Stephens, was not available for comment Friday.

After the bankruptcy court proceeding, Michael Fagone, a Portland attorney representing Kent, said the company wants to settle matters pertaining to the building as fast as it can so the town can pursue another company to lease space in it alongside Creative Apparel.

“Kent’s going to work as hard as it can to get a deal done to preserve as many jobs as it can at the facility,” he said.