A wood products manufacturer in Burnham is set to shut down April 14, according to a spokesperson.
Pride Manufacturing Co. is the world’s largest manufacturer of golf tees and cigar tips, according to the website for its parent company, Tennessee-based PrideSports. It also started making Lincoln Logs, the classic wooden building toy, in 2014.
The shutdown comes at a time when forest industry employment in the state is on the decline, despite a rise in wood product manufacturing sales. The Waldo County manufacturer employs 115 people, according to Peter Bennett, a lawyer representing the company.
“There was a significant shift in customer demand that impacted the economic sustainability of the operation,” Bennett said of the company’s reason for closing.
The closure will have a significant impact on the town, where Pride Manufacturing is one of the largest employers, Burnham select board member Rick Basford said.
“I feel really bad for these people that are losing their jobs,” Basford said, adding that he knows many employees of the company, including some who have worked there for 20 or 30 years.
“We have one store,” he said with a laugh, “so [it’s] a pretty small community.”
Employees were notified this week, according to Bennett.
“The company is doing what it can to support the team of employees who are impacted by this,” Bennett said, noting that staff will receive severance packages that are larger than what the state requires. “They don’t take what happened lightly,” he said.
The closure will likely have an effect on the town’s finances, as the manufacturer is a major source of tax revenue, Basford also noted.
He’s glad the company let Burnham know now, before the town finalizes its budget for the year. The town will have to “tighten our belts, I guess, this year and try to squirrel away a little money to help offset it,” Basford said.
The company was founded in Florida in 1930 before moving to Maine in 1956 to be closer to the wood it used to produce cigar tips, and it started making golf tees soon after.
