For 22 years, Alan Lieber has built chairs and sofas at Norwalk Furniture. This was the company he planned to retire from, the 106-year-old rock of the town it was named after. But the downturn in the housing market hit Norwalk Furniture hard. Lieber worried he'd be heading for the unemployment line....so last summer he hit the road, resume in hand.
Alan Lieber: Bascially I was out looking - not just Norwalk, I went to Willard, Bellevue, Sandusky.
After Norwalk Furniture's lender Comerica called in an $11 million dollar loan in July, the company suspended operations in plants around the country. But it found new investors and brought back workers...then lost those investors and closed its doors. In Norwalk, over 400 people lost their jobs in one fell swoop. It was devastating news for a town with population of about 16,000.
Alan Lieber: It was a big adjustment. I kept praying and kept having a positive attitude. That's about all you can do.
But some in town found they could do more. Tom Bleile is a local businessman, born and raised in Norwalk.
Tom Bleile: We had about a dozen families in the Norwalk area who realized that something had to be done and had to be done quickly, because if we didn't move quickly these jobs were gone forever and the trade name of Norwalk Furniture was going to be lost as well.
Bleile and those families pooled their money - an undisclosed amount - and with loans from the state and the city of Norwalk, bought the plant in late September. The new company, Norwalk Custom Order Furniture, now employs 125 workers. Most worked in the plant for years. Bleile admits the deal has some shaking their heads.
Tom Bleile: A number of people have said we really didn't need financial analysts, we needed a psychiatrist, when you're purchasing a company like this in the middle of one of the worst economic periods in America's history. But there's a sense of confidence in the knowledge that you're dealing with a cadre of people who are truly craftsmen.
Workers are finishing up orders for the old company and are now producing 140 pieces a day. Other staffers are on the road, trying to repair relationships with dealers that once showcased Norwalk's products. Duane Palm worked in the plant for 23 years and was hired by the new company in October. He says local Norwalk investors understand the company's importance.
Duane Palm: It's a big part of the town. People work here, they buy something at WalMart, or down at the 7-11. If they don't work here, they don't live here, they don't buy something at the 7-11. So if we're not in business, they're not in business.
Norwalk Mayor Sue Lesch says the company's taxes once contributed nearly ten percent of the town's general fund. She's thrilled the company is open, but worries about the more than 300 former Norwalk Furniture employees still out of a job.
Sue Lesch: I learned a friend today that is leaving the state to take a job somewhere else. I'm very concerned about the many, many good families that may have to relocate.So we are trying to scramble to do what we can to keep people here.
Many former workers qualify for extended unemployment benefits, help with health care and job retraining under the federal Trade Adjustment Act. Furniture worker Alan Lieber says some of his former colleagues are trying to hang on, hoping the new company will eventually hire them back.
Alan Lieber: Right now, the piece count's not up enough to call a lot of people back. You don't want to overhire and then there be not enough work. Down the road, hopefully, things will pick up and they will get some more people in here.
Loan conditions from the state of Ohio stipulate that the company must make its best efforts to employ 260 workers by 2011. Bleile says it all depends on the economy and how many orders the new company will be able to get. Mhari Saito, 90.3.