PROVIDENCE – Cowan Plastics Inc. yesterday opened one last time for an auction of assets by Newton, Mass.-based auctioneers and appraisers Joseph Finn Co. Inc.
The company, which described itself as the oldest injection molder in Rhode Island, was shuttered Sept. 12 by creditor Bank of America. Cowan Plastics lawyer Peter Furness, of Brennan, Recupero, Cascione, Scungio & McAllister LLP in Providence, said at the time that the company owed the bank more than $1 million.
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Yesterday’s auction began at 9:30 a.m., at the company’s 40,000-square-foot plant on Manton Avenue, and lasted all day. (The company also had a 60,000-square-foot assembly facility in Warwick.)
For those who could not attend in person, bids were also accepted online – at a 13.5 percent premium – via both the Joseph Finn Co. site and live auction broadcast service BidSpotter.com. A 25-percent deposit was required of all buyers; for online bidders, that deposit had to be made in advance.
Among the 692 items for sale were 16 molders, forklifts, granulators, dryers, chillers, compressors, the contents of the company’s tool room, packaging, inventory, and the fittings of the inspection, assembly and packaging areas.
Furness said in September that Cowan Plastics had been “a profitable and positive-cash-flow company up until last year.”
But a June 2002 article about the company in Plastics News was headlined “Mosquitoes help save firm from bankruptcy.” It referred to Cowan’s contract with American Biophysics Corp. of North Kingstown, to manufacture and assemble its Mosquito Magnet.
Making and assembling products for other companies was the basis of Cowan Plastics’ business. It had no products of its own, but cited a distinguished client list that included Waring/Conair Corp., Titleist, Oral-B/Gillette, Boston Scientific, Holmes and Zodiac.
At the time of its closure, the company employed fewer than 23 people, Furness said, down from the 170 cited by Plastics News in 2002.
The auction’s proceeds will go toward repaying the debts Cowan Plastics had incurred with Bank of America, Furness said; the “many other creditors” were not expected to benefit.
