Re: Troy-Bilt Auction...The End
Auction is requiem for way of life
Troy-- Bargain hunters mix with sightseers as remains of manufacturer are sold
By KENNETH AARON, Staff writer
First published: Friday, December 7, 2001
Dave Carlo came to the Garden Way Inc. auction Thursday looking for a lathe and surface grinder. He should know how good they are.
"I ran them for years and years and years,'' said Carlo, a 30-year Garden Way veteran who returned for the dismantling of the factory.
About 100 people were present when the first lot, a pipe wrench, was sold for $90. By about 4:30 p.m. today, 2,689 lots later, just about everything not bolted down -- and lots of stuff that is -- will have gone under the hammer.
The crowd, almost entirely male, was made up of businesspeople and used equipment dealers looking for tool bargains, and more than a few sightseers.
"It's sad to come here and see the place cut up,'' Carlo said.
The end of a 64-year-old manufacturing tradition officially started in July, when Garden Way announced a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and said it would lay off its 550 workers come the end of September.
In reality, though, the end began well before that.
One reason was that the company couldn't make profits at the prices demanded by its key customer, home-improvement retailer Lowe's Cos. Inc.
And Rod Abele, owner of Abele Tractor & Equipment Co. Inc. in Albany, offered another: "They screwed around with their dealer network.''
Abele, at the sale with his son, Jeff, stopped selling Garden Way equipment in the early 1990s, when the company sold to customers direct for less than Abele could buy the machines.
The selection looked "pretty well picked over,'' he said.
No wonder -- MTD Consumer Group Inc., the company that bought most of Garden Way's assets for $44 million, kept lots of equipment.
Cleveland-based MTD gets to keep the bulk of the proceeds. The company running the auction, Continental Plants Corp., gets a percentage, though they're not saying how much. They wouldn't disclose Thursday's take.
Creditors don't get a dime because MTD, not Garden Way, owns what went on the block.
While many of the early lots were moving for under $100, later items were expected to cost more.
Leslie Amoils, owner of Trader Machinery Inc. in Toronto, had his eye on some horizontal machining centers in one of the factory's many chambers. Those types of machines could bring between $50,000 and $100,000, he said.
"It's a little bit outdated, but quality stuff,'' he said.
Not all of Garden Way's employees are gone yet. Some were kept by MTD to help dismantle everything.
"A very unique experience for me,'' said Michael Hayes, once the maintenance and facilities manager and now that department's entire staff. "One that I hope never, ever to repeat again.''
