End of an Era - 04.17.2008

BIC USA Inc. announced that the shutdown of the operations at the Sheaffer Pen facility in Fort Madison, Iowa, will be completed in the spring of 2008, affecting approximately 40 employees. Sheaffer’s fountain pen assembly department will be moved to a third-party manufacturer in Asia. Customer service, purchasing, information technology, warehousing and distribution operations, packaging and quality control will be moved to Slovakia, where BIC has its operations. Service and repair will be handled by Sheaffer’s U.S. distributor, Hampton-Haddon Marketing Corporation of Philadelphia. In December of 2007, Sheaffer’s product development department, totaling three employees, relocated to another facility in Fort Madison.
“This has been a challenging transition over the past few years, and we thank the Sheaffer work force for their dedication and patience,” said Ron Davanzo, general manager of Sheaffer Pen. “We believe that the consolidation of these operations allows us to best position Sheaffer Pen to compete in the fine writing instrument category in the future.”
Sheaffer announced that it had sold the Fort Madison facility to Fort Madison Properties, LLC, in November of 2006.