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Weave could reopen next week

Former employees helping to assess company’s future

-- Home Textiles Today, 11/13/2009 9:17:00 AM

Hackensack, N.J. — A representative of the receiver for Weave Corp. said Thursday she hopes to have the financially stricken upholstery fabric supplier up and running again as soon as next week.

Weave, a longtime supplier to the industry, closed abruptly after defaulting on loans of nearly $9 million issued by Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank. The closing affected the company's mill in Denver, Pa., the headquarters here and a showroom in New York.

The company had used its assets for collateral and agreed to turn them over to the bank when it couldn't meet payment deadlines.

Maggie Good, who is leading the recovery effort at Weave for turnaround specialist The Meridian Group, said Thursday that key employees of Weave had returned and were helping to assess the company's future.

"Hopefully, we can put together a plan that will show we can restart the company," she said. "We don't have all the information yet. We're in the process of talking to customers, to vendors and to employees. Our first day was Wednesday and it took most of the day to get the computers up and running."

She said customers "would love for Weave to restart." She also said she has been in contact with a number of prospective buyers of the company's assets.

Good also said that the company's former executive vice president, chief financial officer and head of sales are working to help determine whether the company will reopen. But Weave's fifth-generation family owner and ceo, Roger Berkley, is not involved.

Weave is the latest in a string of domestic fabric mills to shut down because of the double-whammy of a weak economy and stiff competition from Chinese imports.

Court documents show that PNC called in two loans for a total of $8.7 million, and that the value of Weave's collateral declined by nearly $1.2 million from March through August of this year. A total value of the assets was not disclosed.

Weave, which makes upper-end fabrics, reduced its workforce and closed a design studio earlier this year in response to the economic slowdown. Before the shutdown, it had about 70 remaining workers.

By Gary Evans, senior editor at HTT sister publication Furniture Today

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