Well crap - Enderes Tools is no more
I was in my
local hardware store today -- I use a particular brand of punch a lot for blacksmithing and wanted to get some more. I re-grind them to create shapes for blacksmithing -- for making faces (eyes, ears, nostrils, etc...) and for general metal forming.
I went to their display only to find -- a different display. WTF?
Asked the sales clerk and it turns out that Enderes Tools is no longer in business.
From the
Albert Lee, Minnesota Tribune:
Enderes Tool down, not out
Enderes Tool Co., an Albert Lea manufacturer with more than a century of local history, isn’t out of business. It still exists on paper. It still has a website.
But its future hinges on a gauntlet of financial issues.
The IRS has two liens on the company, one for $351,159 and another for $44,758. The company also owes property taxes: $98,147 on the parcel with its manufacturing plant on it and $17,249 on an adjacent bare parcel. The properties are scheduled for a forfeiture auction coming Aug. 9.
The company closed the manufacturing plant at 924 E. 14th St. in the Jobs Industrial Park in Albert Lea on April 27. There were six workers making tools at the time. By all accounts, competition from imported tools harmed the company’s ability to sell its products. Enderes made durable forged tools: chisels, punches, hitch pins, pry bars, wrecking bars, screwdrivers, drill bits, masonry tools and farrier tools.
Steve Overgaard, owner of Albert Lea-based Vasco Inc., said Enderes retains a reputation for quality. He would like to purchase the building and put the workers back to work. He said he has been trying to buy the business for four months. He has been in touch with Enderes CEO Todd Dahl.
Yet another great American company driven out of business by cheap imported crap and by customers who are too stupid to tell the difference.
Their
website is still up but no word if they have any backstock to sell.
In addition to the punches, they made a
really nice four-way screwdriver. I have a couple of these and will have to make sure they stay safe and don't get lost.
There is one other business in the county that was a stocking vendor of their punches. Heading over there on my way home tomorrow to buy out their remaining stock...
Posted by DaveH at August 28, 2012 6:00 PM