By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
Another longtime Stevens Point business is closing down, and approximately 160 employees will be affected.
The Peachtree Companies Inc. of Medford announced Monday, Dec. 10, the former Vetter Manufacturing facility, 2116 Wood St., will be closed and its operations moved to a more efficient facility in Medford.
As required by state law, The Peachtree Companies, which purchased SNE Enterprises Inc., filed a notice with the Dislocated Workers Unit of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and local officials, saying the Stevens Point plant will close on Feb. 8, 2002, 60 days after the notification.
The notice said the affected employees do not have bumping rights, which would have allowed them to retain their jobs by moving to the Medford facility.
A press release from The Peachtree Companies said the transfer of manufacturing to Medford is part of the company's ongoing integration following the purchase of The Peachtree Companies by the Schield family, founders and owners of Weather Shield Mfg. Inc.
"We're following through on our strategy of keeping the Peachtree and Weather Shield brands independent, but integrating administrative, executive and manufacturing functions wherever it makes sense," said Bob Schoofs, (CEO).
The Stevens Point facility, which had been part of SNE Enterprises Inc., is housed in a number of older single-story and three-story buildings on the city's historic south side.
The manufacturing is being moved to a more efficient facility in Medford that has excess capacity and is in close proximity to the company's glass manufacturing and transportation operations.
"When faced with either upgrading the Stevens Point operation or moving it to an existing site in Medford, we chose the latter because it made better economic and operational sense," Schoofs said.
The closing of the plant will end another era of manufacturing in Stevens Point and is the second notification in the last 2 1/2 years that employees received about their jobs being in jeopardy.
In August 1999 SNE officials said the Stevens Point operations may be moved to the Mosinee plant, which is across the road from the Central Wisconsin Airport. That move never occurred.
The outside of the local plant still bears the name of the Stevens Point manufacturing firm that built the facility, even though it has gone through a number of owners in the last few decades.
Herman A. Vetter, 25, started Vetter Mfg. Co. in 1893 after purchasing a defunct planing mill for $2,800, during a era when lumber and millwork were still king.
The company made doors, windows, interior trim, cabinetwork and other millwork used in homes and other buildings, and also operated a retail lumber business, now the site of the former Stock Lumber Co. at the corner of Wood and Park streets.
Vetter remained a family-owned business until the 1980s when it was purchased by Sentry Insurance and later by SNE.
SNE originally had five plants, four in Wausau and the one here, and consolidated them into two, Mosinee and Stevens Point, after construction of the Mosinee plant was completed in 1991.
The Stevens Point plant makes specialty wood and vinyl windows but utilizes materials from the Mosinee plant and then returns many products to Mosinee to be combined with products finished there.
SNE was purchased by The Peachtree Companies earlier this year.
The Edward Schield family owns and operates Weather Shield Mfg. Inc. and The Peachtree Companies Inc.
Weather Shield manufactures high-quality windows and doors for the professional builder and remodeler sold under the Weather Shield Windows & Doors brand.
The Peachtree Companies manufactures doors and windows under the Peachtree, Crestline, Vetter and Kenergy brands for builder, remodeler, retail and manufactured housing markets.
Together the two organizations employ approximately 5,400 in facilities in Medford, Park Falls, Greenwood, Ladysmith, Stevens Point and Mosinee in Wisconsin, plus Norcross and Gainesville, Ga., Logan, Utah, and Huntington, W.Va.