Crane Stationery Future Uncertain With Reports of Layoffs
COHOES, N.Y. — Mohawk Fine Papers, which owns Crane Stationery, is reportedly being acquired by the international Fedrigoni Group and employees at Crane were laid off.
The news was reported Wednesday by Albany Business Review, which also confirmed that 75 people in the Crane unit were notified on Tuesday that they were laid off "effective immediately."
The deal appears to be affecting what's left of the 220-year-old Crane Stationery, which Mohawk purchased in 2018. The New York company closed the North Adams, Mass., plant in 2020 and laid off nearly 200 employees.
A number of them were offered jobs in Cohoes, where the printing of Crane was to continue, and remotely. Workers said on Facebook that they'd been locked out of their email and company access on Tuesday with no notice; some have apparently received the news by letter via FedEx.
The Crane Stationery website has been down since Tuesday afternoon with a notice that "we are taking a moment to reflect" while maintenance and upgrades are being performed.
The company's apparently been mum with its many customers on the status of their orders. "Please let your loyal retailers who have been with you for 50 years what the hell is going on!!!" posted Paper Mill Studio Designs on Crane & Co.'s Instagram. "Hundreds have orders pending with you."
Another commenter on Thursday posted that she'd "been emailing and calling for days about my missing order. No response. Phone lines don't even pick up. That's bad customer service."
Some of these comments have since disappeared from the Instagram account.
Fedrigoni is a specialty paper and luxury packaging manufacturer based in Italy. Established in 1888, it says it employs more than 4,500 in 27 countries. The firm's been on acquisitions tear the last few years, taking over paper and adhesive companies in France, China, Spain and Turkey, and acquiring an equity stake in SharpEnd, a software solutions firm.
Mohawk, family owned since 1931, had entered into a manufacturing agreement with Fedrigoni in 2022 and became its North American distributor last July.
Mohawk Fine Papers purchased Crane in 2018 from an employee partnership and not long after was touting its commitment to invest $3 million to $4 million into the facility in the Robert Hardman Industrial Park on Curran Highway.
It was in the midst of a rebranding effort expected to be unveiled by the end of the year when it announced the plant closure, blaming the pandemic, digital culture and the bankruptcy of its largest customer.
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