The local Agway store at 600 Main St. will continue its operations virtually unchanged by the national company's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Michael Uryniak, owner of the local store for the past 10 years, said the effect of the national company's problems will amount to "basically nothing" for his operation.
"Agway, Inc., has no financial control or responsibilities at this location," said Uryniak, who owns the business outright. "If the public has a perception there's a problem, I'll change the name."
Uryniak said his store buys only a tiny percentage of its inventory from the national company, and that that portion is easily replaced from other sources. "Up until a few years ago, we were buying our product from them," Uryniak said in a telephone interview yesterday.
"Now we buy from other places, and now we buy only grain. And I have grain sales reps in here all the time trying to sell me their product," he said.
"The national company's bankruptcy will have very, very little impact," he said. "The effect will range from non-existent to negligible."
"The latest information I have on their grain is that the Agway feed mills are being bought by someone else who will continue to operate them," he said.
"None of the inventory here comes from Agway except a couple thousand dollars worth of feed, and that's a negligible amount," he said. Some products are now made by different companies that still use the Agway name, he said.
"The store's doing very well," he said. That translates, he said, to "just under $1 million annually," and, he added, "this year in spite of the economy we've had a gain in volume in 11 of the 12 months."
"People think Agway is Agway, and that it's all connected and managed under one roof, but that's incorrect," he said.
Uryniak leases the building, formerly a car dealership, from the McMahon family. Uryniak worked for Agway for 19 years before buying the business, at a time when the national company was selling many of its stores to private individuals. He moved the store from its previous location off Cole Avenue by the former Boston & Maine railroad tracks.
Petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code from Agway, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries were expected to be filed yesterday, Oct. 1, with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York in Utica, N.Y.
Agway, Inc., announced its plans in a press release Monday from Stephen H. Hoevfer, senior five president for public affairs for the Syracuse, N.Y., offices.
Subsidiaries included in the petition are Agway Feed and Nutrition, Agway Agronomy, Seedway, Feed Commodities International, Country Best Produce, CPG Nutrients, Agway CPG Technologies and Agway General Agency.
The company's energy businesses are not included in the Chapter 11 filing.
Agway, Inc. is an agricultural cooperative owned by 69,000 Northeast farmer-members, headquartered in DeWitt, N.Y.
Monday, the company reported a net loss of $98.2 million for the year ended June 30, which includes a net loss of $85.4 million directly related to the sale of discontinued operations, and not, said a spokesman, directly related to the company's ongoing business operations..
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Greylock School Project Garnering Interest From Bidders
By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A recent walkthrough of the Greylock School site turned out more interest than expected, which school officials and project managers hope will translate into multiple bids.
The project includes the demolition of the 60-year-old elementary school and the construction of a new two-story school directly to its north.
"We don't always expect a lot of them to show when a building is going to be demolished. There's not a lot for them to see," said Tim Alix of Collier's International, the owner's project manager, told the School Building Committee on Tuesday. "But just putting eyes on the site, seeing where the utilities are coming in so they can they've seen them all that information on the documents, but to see it in 3-D and they can start making their plans.
"We're hopeful that that means that we are going to be receiving a number of bids in each category. So that's encouraging."
The subcontracting bids are due Tuesday and the general contractors' on Jan. 14. Alix said there will be plenty of time to review the subcontractor documents before releasing that information so the general contractors can compile their bids. All bidders went through a prequalification process this past fall to be accepted by the Massachusetts School Building Authority, which is covering more than two-thirds of the cost of the project.
Jesse Saylor of TSKP Studio, the school's designer, said there have also been a lot of questions from potential bidders.
"We have received a number of bidders' questions, which are called bid RFIs, and that's normal," he said. "I think it shows participation, you know, bidders who are working on the job, are looking at the documents, and they're finding things that they want to make sure they understand."
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