(Tom Croke)
While the past 15 years may have seen the loss of some major manufacturers in Rhode Island, if you ask those who remain, they will say the industry’s greatest change has come in the form of technology.
Once the state’s primary industry, in the fourth quarter of 1987 manufacturing employment fell below miscellaneous service employment – marking what University of Rhode Island Economics Professor Leonard Lardaro called “a structural change” in the industry.
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The change coincided with an economic downturn kicked off with what the headline of the November 2, 1987 issue of the Providence Business News called a “Fallout — Stock Market Meltdown.”
Major manufactures in the state saw double digit drops in their stock prices: Pen manufacturer A.T. Cross lost 36.9 percent, Brown & Sharpe dropped 21.5 percent, Hasbro lost 49.2 percent and Textron saw a 45.8 percent loss.
The manufacturing industry continued on a downward slide into the 21st Century. In 1995 Hasbro, among the world’s largest toy manufacturers, announced it would lay off 400 workers – another 130 jobs were cut from the company by the start of the following year.
The year 1995 also saw the close of a Rhode Island giant — Hoechst Celanese’s Coventry plant — leaving close to 400 employees out of work.
More recently the state has suffered the loss of Providence jewelry manufacturer Monet, part of the Monet Group of New York. In 1999, the company announced it intended to terminate 200 workers and move its manufacturing overseas. And last year, the North Kingstown- based Brown & Sharpe was sold to Sweden-based Hexagon.
But while the outlook seems grim because of all these closures and layoffs, according to Lardaro, it’s not.
“Manufacturing employment has gone down every year since 1984,” Lardaro said. “But the biggest changes to the manufacturing industry have occurred after the change — during this recovery period.”
According to some in the industry what has happened is a “cultural change”– one that has helped shed the image of an old, dusty shop floor — for a high-tech world of computer chips and inventory regulation.
“In this business you survive though technology and capital investment,” said Robert Batting, president and chief executive officer of Kenney Manufacturing in Warwick, manufacturer primarily of window and bathroom hardware. “It’s not fashionable to have technology in this business, it’s essential. Those who have not transitioned can’t compete.”
Howard Kilguss, president of Excell Manufacturing and Hallmark Sweet agreed.
“Our industry was unsophisticated,” he said. “It required a cultural change. Companies that can’t afford to invest in the training and the technology just fell behind. We have foreign competition now, and that’s a whole new ball game.”
According to Kilguss the new game is creating fewer players, especially in jewelry manufacturing.
“The bigger are getting bigger and the smaller are dying out,” he said. “Providence used to be the jewelry capital of the world — we had hundreds of jewelry businesses here, many of which had only 10 or 15 employees. You can’t do that anymore”
Last year, Kilguss sold his company, Excell Manufacturing to the London-based Cookson Group. Under the agreement Excell became part of Cookson’s Precious Metals Division and Kilguss became president and chief executive officer of both Excell and Hallmark Sweet, a Cookson company based in Attleboro.
“This trend started about 10 years ago,” he said. “Big companies are requiring that we communicate computer to computer, carry a lot of inventory and a whole lot of other things that smaller companies just can’t afford to do. It’s become a fact of life — you have to face up to worldwide markets, ultimately becoming exporters. To do that you have to be part of a larger group.” Rhode Island’s history continues to make it attractive to new companies. This year, Tiffany & Co., one of the nation’s most prestigious jewelry manufacturers and retailers is scheduled to complete the construction of a $10 million plant in Cumberland. The new 100,000 square-foot facility is expected to bring more than 400 jobs and open in early February.
