Three generations of Marandolas: from left, Edward III, Edward Jr., Edward Sr. (portrait), who started the company in 1941, and Marc E. Marandola.
Victory Finishing Technologies has done something rare: It emerged from a six-year receivership this month as a profitable company. But it hasn’t been easy.
The company – one of the largest metal finishing, powder coating and polishing businesses in New England – was placed in receivership in 2000 at the request of Fleet Bank (now Bank of America), which was “unsatisfied” with its dealings with Victory Finishing, said Allan Shine, of Winograd, Shine & Zacks PC of Providence, a lawyer and the court-appointed receiver.
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Shine said this was the longest receivership he’d been involved with in 45 years. The company survived, he said, because owner Edward Marandola Jr. also owns Diversified Products Inc. of Providence, a manufacturer of emblematic jewelry, so he was able to refinance and pay Fleet in full. That removed the pressure to liquidate.
“Their people were very, very good to us,” Marandola said of Maine-based TD Banknorth, now the main bank for both of his companies.
Most of Victory Finishing’s creditors were paid in full two weeks ago, when the receivership was dismissed, Shine said. The pre-receivership vendors, who had continued doing business with the company had agreed to take 15 percent of what they were owed.
Of the $3.8 million paid to creditors, $1.2 million went to the City of Providence, which had tax liens on real estate owned by the company, Shine said. And $1.2 million went to Presidential Financial, which had a lien on the company’s accounts receivable.
How did the 65-year-old Providence company get into trouble in the first place? A lot of it had to do with globalization, Marandola said, which was like “a Category 5 hurricane that hit the whole manufacturing industry. … Almost everyone in our market left.”
Three years ago, the company hit a record low and had to cut its work force to 50, down from 130 before the receivership. To reverse the decline in sales, Marandola said, it “took a step back and focused on existing customers, on satisfying them.”
As a result, he said, sales have increased by 50 percent during the past three years. The company now employs about 85 full-time workers, he said, and up to 35 temporary employees seasonally.
But it hasn’t been easy. “We have to be able to deliver faster,” he said.
Now, their increased speed is also attracting new business. Marandola said some customers – though tempted initially by the cheaper prices of metal finishers in other countries – are coming back to Victory Finishing because of delays or missed shipments.
“If they have problems at the port,” he said, the lower cost of doing business overseas sometimes “doesn’t weigh out in the end.”
In addition, some competitors have fallen by the wayside, opening avenues to more new business. In 1985, said Edward Marandola Jr., there were at least 700 metal finishers in Providence. “Now, I don’t think there’s 50.”
Victory Finishing started as Victory Polishing Co. (the name was inspired by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s “V for Victory” motto) and serviced the jewelry industry until diversifying in the 1960s, when it discovered new markets such as the cosmetics industry.
Since then, the company has done plating – or metal finishing – in copper, nickel, brass, gold, platinum, rhodium and silver, for many companies, including ones in the automotive, electronics and military industries.
The 110,000-square-foot facility off Eddy Street can handle jobs as small as a handful or as large as millions of items, Marc Marandola said.
Today, Victory Finishing works on a wide range of products, from key chains, Zippo lighters and Christmas ornaments to Purple Heart military medals, automotive hood ornaments and parts for laser-guided bombs.
“It will never be like it was before,” said Edward Marandola Jr. “But if you’re in a position to provide the right products and services, you can be successful.”
