Wire Company Holdings, LLC, which does business as New York Wire, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware bankruptcy court.
A story in the Evening Sun reported that the official request for bankruptcy, which seeks financing to continue operations, was filed by Wire Company Holdings, LLC, whose address in Hanover, Pennsylvania, is the same as the wire manufacturer. The filing said that as of Sept. 1, New York Wire employed 237 people at Hanover and at other locations in York County.
The report said that the company has more than $12.2 million in outstanding secured debt and $3.4 million in other obligations. A list of the company’s 30 largest creditors of unsecured claims showed that the wire company owes at least $2.2 million in debts for raw materials, health insurance, freight, gas, electricity and other services. “A reasonably prompt sale of the Debtors’ businesses…is essential to not only preserve the underlying value of their operations by providing customers and employees with a clear path forward, but also to maximize the value of the Debtors’ assets for the benefit of the Debtors’ creditors,” the document said.
In its filings, the company cited problems relating to its 2012 opening of a manufacturing facility in China that “experienced long and expensive start-up issues, including high turnover in the general manager position as well as production delays and other problems.”
Francis J. Root founded the Hamilton Wire Company in Hamilton, New York, in 1888. A short time later, Root merged the company with three other wire weavers: – P.S. de Witt & Sons of Brooklyn, New York; Homer Wire Cloth of Homer, New York; and York Wire Cloth, York, Pennsylvania. In 1892, he renamed the company New York Wire Cloth. According to a book published by the Manufacturer’s Association of Southcentral Pennsylvania’s 100th anniversary, the company is the oldest wire weaver in the country and the first to design a loom capable of weaving metal wire.
