ClearSource Bottling Plant Shut Down;
 

 

55+ Out of Work

By M. D. Drysdale

Randolph’s water bottling plant, ClearSource, Inc. abruptly shut down its manufacturing operation last week, giving paychecks to all of its employees, along with the telephone number of the unemployment office.

In a formal notification letter received at the town offices this week, the company’s financial officer, Michael Pessiki, wrote that the company "has fallen upon difficult economic times" and has suddenly found itself unable to borrow money.

"We cannot say what the future holds," said Pessiki in a letter that appeared to have been sent also to employees as required by the "Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act."

ClearSource merged last year with Wissahickon Water Co. of Pennsylvania, a family-owned water bottler. The company adopted the ClearSource name but is headquartered in Pennsylvania.

Repeated calls to the principal owner, Jay Land, were not returned this week. At the Randolph factory, Plant Manager Doug Concialdi said he was not authorized to make any statement.

Tuesday, Concialdi was the only employee in sight in the manufacturing area, though a skeleton crew of three office workers was present elsewhere. The plant manager himself was operating a forklift, loading remaining pallets of water onto a waiting truck.

The number of jobs involved could not be exactly determined. Land told The Herald in February that 55 workers were employed—down from a peak of nearly 100. State officials said they were told that 76 workers would be affected.

Former ClearSource workers told The Herald that a plant meeting last Tuesday warned that jobs might be lost. Employees were encouraged to call daily to see if they would be needed. On Friday, however, virtually all employees were given checks, told not to come back to work this week, and were given the telephone contact for unemployment insurance.

One of the workers contacted had worked for Ethan Allen, Inc. for 15 years before being displaced when that company closed down. The ClearSource closing, he said, was "more of a shock because it came so fast."

Workers said the company held out some prospect that the plant might reopen, but they weren’t counting on it.

"I’m hoping we’ll get back to work, but …" said one of them, leaving the "but" trailing in the air.

Pat Moulton Powden, the Vermont Commissioner of Labor, said her office had received no warning of the shutdown. She said she had heard rumors of a possible purchase of the company, but nothing specific.

Pessiki’s letter to employees painted a bleak situation.

"The company cannot borrow the money it needs to operate," he said. "This has caused us to severely scale back our operations…"

"The company is exploring all of its options," he said, "including those relating to interim funding and/or a scenario in which it would sell all or substantially all of its assets to a third party.

"To this day we are unable to say whether your employment will continue at all and, if so, for how long …

"We sincerely regret the sudden and unexpected situation in which we have found ourselves…."

Founded in 1992

The water bottling company was founded in 1992 as "Vermont Hidden Springs" filling bottles at a small plant on Hedding Drive. Many residents still remember being allowed to fill their containers at the facility.

In the late 1990s, it became Vermont Pure Springs, Inc. and under the leadership of CEO Tim Fallon vigorously marketed itself as a high-value brand competing with the likes of Perrier and Evian, sponsoring the New York Marathon and other prestigious evens.

Its plant near Interstate 89 on Route 66 benefited from one of the largest development grants Randolph ever received—about $500,000 which was loaned to the company and eventually reverted to the town.

Vermont Pure expanded again in 2000, more than doubling its plan to a total of 74,000 square feet. A year later Sen. Patrick Leahy showed up to help dedicate the building to Bob Bierley, a longtime plant manager.

In 2002 the company was featured as one of Vermont’s fastest-growing manufacturers, having grown from $12 million in sales to $67 million in five years.

Then the company acquired a competitor, Crystal Rock, a purchase which almost doubled its size.

In March 2004 Fallon sold the company to Micropack Bottled Water of Natick, Mass. Under the leadership of President Jim Morgan, a third production line was built, resulting in a 50% increase in capacity, and that same year, the firm changed its name to ClearSource.

In May 2006, ClearSource added the capability to make its own plastic bottles.

Then last October came the merger with Wissahickon in Pennsylvania.

Controversy

Throughout most of its history, some of the company’s operations have attracted controversy. Protests came especially from the residents of Rogers Road, where the major spring is located. Truck traffic on the rural road was excessive, said those neighbors, and some residents of Route 66 agreed.

The state helped fund a study in 2004 that indicated that it would be possible to transport the water from spring to plant by building a pipeline, but the project was never undertaken. The company also faced questions about how much water could be taken from the springs without adversely affecting the brook or the water table.

The new ClearSource owners received a nasty shock earlier this year with an adverse decision by Act 250 that would require new permits on several different fronts.

That difficulty, however, was not mentioned in Pessiki’s letter.