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Case
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Reference no. 803-026-1
Subject category: Entrepreneurship
Published by: Babson College
Originally published in: 2003
Version: 04.17.03
Length: 22 pages
Data source: Field research

Abstract

This is a three-part case. Aaron Feuerstein, the Chairman, President and CEO of the Malden Mills garment factory, one of the last remaining large textile mills in the United States, is dealt a tragic blow in 1995 when his factory burns to the ground. Three thousand workers are faced with unemployment but are rescued by Feuerstein who decides to pay the 3,000 employees their full salary for three months at a cost of $15 million while he figures out how to rebuild the plant. Feuerstein receives a huge positive reaction from the press, the public and US President William Clinton who invites him to his State of the Union address in 1996. By 1997, using $300 million in insurance money from the fire, Malden Mills reopens in a new building, which costs $430 million, next to his former factory. A few major orders from the US military for Polartec(R) materials for their uniforms keep the company going for a few years but several major former customers never buy again from Malden Mills. This loss of sales and the additional debt burden for the new building resulted in the company declaring bankruptcy in November of 2001. Reorganisation plans drawn up by a crisis management team call for a new management team which leaves Feuerstein out and begins plans to find cheaper labour in Asia. Feuerstein resists these changes and as the case closes he is in the process of raising money to buy the company back from its creditors - General Electric Corporation''s GE Capital Unit by June 30, 2003. The teaching note suggests that this case can be used in entrepreneurial ethics, strategy, and business law or family business courses. There is an extensive bibliography, and questions for the students for classroom discussion are also provided.
Size:
Mature to declining
Other setting(s):
1995-2003

About

Abstract

This is a three-part case. Aaron Feuerstein, the Chairman, President and CEO of the Malden Mills garment factory, one of the last remaining large textile mills in the United States, is dealt a tragic blow in 1995 when his factory burns to the ground. Three thousand workers are faced with unemployment but are rescued by Feuerstein who decides to pay the 3,000 employees their full salary for three months at a cost of $15 million while he figures out how to rebuild the plant. Feuerstein receives a huge positive reaction from the press, the public and US President William Clinton who invites him to his State of the Union address in 1996. By 1997, using $300 million in insurance money from the fire, Malden Mills reopens in a new building, which costs $430 million, next to his former factory. A few major orders from the US military for Polartec(R) materials for their uniforms keep the company going for a few years but several major former customers never buy again from Malden Mills. This loss of sales and the additional debt burden for the new building resulted in the company declaring bankruptcy in November of 2001. Reorganisation plans drawn up by a crisis management team call for a new management team which leaves Feuerstein out and begins plans to find cheaper labour in Asia. Feuerstein resists these changes and as the case closes he is in the process of raising money to buy the company back from its creditors - General Electric Corporation''s GE Capital Unit by June 30, 2003. The teaching note suggests that this case can be used in entrepreneurial ethics, strategy, and business law or family business courses. There is an extensive bibliography, and questions for the students for classroom discussion are also provided.

Settings

Size:
Mature to declining
Other setting(s):
1995-2003

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