Sherrill Manufacturing Inc., the flatware maker operating in the former Oneida Ltd. factory in Sherrill, New York, has moved all of its manufacturing back from Mexico and more than doubled its workforce, The Post-Standard reported on November 19, 2014.
From Toluca back to Sherrill
After filing for bankruptcy reorganization in 2010, the company stopped production in Sherrill. It moved its flatware work for the armed services and for Cutco Corp. to a former Oneida plant in Toluca, Mexico. It emerged from bankruptcy in November 2013, and CEO Gregory Owens said it finished moving that government and contract manufacturing back to Sherrill in June 2014.
- The company employed 42 people (38 full-time and four permanent part-time), up from 16 full-time workers a year earlier.
- The factory now produces every day instead of running six-week production stretches with gaps of a couple of months.
- Contract manufacturing makes up about a third of production.
- Sales of the company’s own Liberty Tabletop line were up 20%, and total 2014 revenue was expected to be about $2.4 million.
“It made our work here steady, as opposed to sporadic campaigns,” Owens said. The company promotes all of its tableware as made in the USA. Owens and Matthew Roberts, both former Oneida executives, opened Sherrill Manufacturing in 2005.
The company announced the move in May 2014, after raising $1 million through a convertible loan. In 2016, Sherrill won a dispute over imported flatware listed as USA-made on a federal purchasing site (our coverage).
Source & credit
Source: The Post-Standard (syracuse.com): “Silverware maker brings manufacturing back from Mexico, more than doubles CNY workforce”, November 19, 2014.
Additional source: syracuse.com: “USA’s last tableware maker bringing jobs from Mexico back to Central New York”, May 2014.