RECENT CORPORATE DOWNSIZINGS
Escalade Is Ending Evansville Production
August 19, 2008
Table tennis equipment producer Escalade Sports has announced it will end production in its Evansville manufacturing facility, effective Sept. 5.
Gary T. Allan, Escalade human resource director, said the move is the result of a previously announced initiative to lower operating costs and reduce excess manufacturing capacity.
Escalade employs 115 associates in the Evansville area and over 900 associates worldwide. The decision to quit production in Evansville will impact 30 manufacturing-related positions here, Allan said.
Table tennis production will be consolidated into Escalade Sports Mexico operations.
Escalade Sports is the largest marketer of table tennis in North America with its STIGA and Ping Pong brands.
The 30 employees losing their jobs here will be eligible for extended benefits and training under a TAA agreement granted earlier this year.
Source: Evansville Courier & Press
Escalade to Stop Selling Billiard Tables to Sears
April 11, 2008
Escalade Inc. said today it will stop selling table-tennis and billiard tables to the Sears Holdings Corp. because the department-store company is not buying as many as it was in the past.
Escalade, an Evansville maker of sports and office equipment, said its sales of table-tennis and billiard tables to Sears Holding fell in the first quarter of 2008 about 60 percent below where they had been a year ago. Sears Holdings owns both the Sears and K-Mart chains.
Escalade said it will stop selling the products to Sears in the second half of this year. Sears used to buy more of the table-tennis and billiards tables than any other retailer, and the products had composed about half of what Escalade had sold to Sears.
Escalade said it sold 14 percent fewer sporting goods in the first quarter of 2008 than it had in the same period a year ago.
Escalade attributed nearly three quarters of that decline to retail stores’ buying fewer of its table-tennis tables, billiard tables and similar products. The company said the demand for such things has fallen in recent years and the bad economy has strengthened that trend.
Source: Evansville Courier & Press
