M. Ferrara & Sons - News

Stanley management reportedly told employees the company realized an estimated $1 million dollars from the sale. Equipment sold included machine repair, tool works, and carpentry.

During the aftermath of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City most business ground to a halt. Throughout the nation flights were cancelled; business meetings were put on hold. But in New Britain on Sept. 12 at The Stanley Works it was business as usual. Quietly and with little fanfare the company appears to have sold off parts of its production equipment.

Stanley management reportedly told employees the company realized and estimated one million dollars from the sale. Equipment sold included machine repair, tool works, and carpentry.

Most buyers were local job shops, though some drove all the way from Chicago fro the auction.

"We're cleaning up, getting ready for the ax to fall," a Stanley worker told me. "The machinery sold for peanuts; every buyer got a good deal."

Another worker said two headers that were sold "netted over a hundred thousand dollars."

Gerald Gould, Stanley spokesman, denied that sale of equipment was a prelude to phasing out production work. He refused to acknowledge the auction or comment on it.

"We don't comment on rumors," said Gould.

But Mike Ferrara of M. Ferrara and Sons, Portland, Conn., dealers in used machinery, said dealers in the area knew about the auction. He attended and purchased two riggers. Ferrara sad Stanley sent out auction brochures to various dealers, and that the auction was "conducted in a professional manner by Koster Industries, Inc. of Melville, N.Y. Manufacturers were bidding over the phone."

Although a classified ad for the auction appeared in the Herald Press Sept. 9, Chris Dziewulski of DACO Manufacturing, New Britain, said he wished the auction had been better publicized.

"I'm sure there as equipment I'd be interested in," he said. "They (Stanley) should have publicized it more in the New Britain area."

Earlier in the month, Stanley announced that it was transferring 130 workers from Farmington to New Britain.

Gould said he would not comment. Auctioneers and local dealers in used machinery did not return my phone calls.

Though Stanley jobs may indeed be headed offshore, the company continues to cast a force majeure.