After layoffs, Kent aims for more military work

FORT KENT – The plant manager for Kent Inc. hopes to keep half of his workers to manufacture military wear after the plant stops manufacturing blanket sleepers for children in early August.

Layoffs have started at the plant, but the majority of workers will get their pink slips by Aug. 1, Kevin Dubois said Tuesday. Some will see their last day of employment Friday.

“It’s not a good time,” Dubois, who has been at the plant 51/2 years. “It’s really sad, because some of these employees have dedicated their lives to this place.

“This will be taken away from them, except for a select few,” he said. “One year ago, we had 185 employees here.”

“The loss of jobs will be high,” Town Manager Donald Guimond said Tuesday. “While a good part of them are from Fort Kent, some come from Allagash and Grand Isle to work at this plant.”

This week, the plant is using 109 people. Dubois believes 55 will be left when the children’s wear line is done.

The children’s wear manufacturing plant, which has nearly 50 years of history in Fort Kent, will see its work moving to the Dominican Republic to be handled by Wormser Co., the Chicago-based manufacturer marketer of children’s sleepwear.

Employees, whom Michael Gans, the owner of Kent Inc., described as among the best in the country when he reopened in 1997, did not have a say in the matter, which has been handled in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.They are not even going to finish their last orders for blanket sleepers as Gans has secured an agreement with Wormser Co.

The workers still working at the beginning of August will work on contracts with Creative Apparel of Belfast to manufacture Kevlar flight suits. Dubois said that would keep 30 employees working. The other 25 will be making military jackets.

“We will be making jackets, and that’s new for us,” Dubois said.

About 85 percent of the employees working for Dubois are women. He said some have been there since the mid-1970s.

Fort Kent’s unemployment rate for May was 13.8 percent, according to Guimond. Unemployment is usually high in Fort Kent in May because woods workers are out of the woods during the mud season.

“It [the unemployment rate] will certainly go higher with what is happening at Kent Inc.,” he said. “It’s a big loss for the town and the area.”

Another big hit for the town will be in property and personal property tax losses.

“We will be losing between $25,000 to $30,000 in property and personal property taxes,” Guimond said. “That’s up and over the payroll loss the area will have.”

Guimond has not given up.

“We are working on trying to come up with a viable plan for another apparel company in the plant,” he said “It’s a bit early, but we are working on it.

“We also have the opportunity to grow with the military clothing line,” he said. “Unlike children’s wear, those government contracts must be done in the country.”

The town also is exploring other options. Town officials would like to acquire the Kent Inc. building, which actually is two buildings connected by a corridor, with about 114,000 square feet, to subdivide for other types of manufacturing.

The town had ownership of the buildings at one time, but they were turned over to Gans’ group to get the plant going again in 1997.

The manufacturing of children’s wear in Fort Kent was started by Lloyd and Bernadine Dunn in the early 1950s. Princess Kent, as it was known for years, went through several owners until Gerber Childrenswear closed the plant in the waning months of 1996.

Gans and his associates reopened the plant in April 1997 with a lot of fanfare. It was nearly one year ago that Gans’ company announced severe money problems. The plant, he had said, could close as early as November 2002.