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January 23, 2008

Company bids $250,000 to operate lace works as is

WEST WARWICK -- Palmisciano-Ponte Investment Group LLC was the high bidder, at $250,000, today to continue operating as the Riverpoint Lace Works, the textile dyeing and finishing company that has operated here for more than 80 years, and to preserve jobs for its 50 employees.

This morning, receiver Theodore Orson, of the law firm of Orson and Brusini, gathered before about 30 people on the second floor of the mill, at 825 Main St., to discuss the sale terms.

The company accepted different bid amounts depending on what the buyer wanted to do with the business. In addition to the $250,000 bid, two other bids came in to buy the assets as scrap.

Finally, auctioneer Sal Corio, of SJ Corio Corporation in Warwick, led interested buyers through Lippitt Mill to bid on individual machines and the entire contents of rooms.

Orson was to calculate which offer would generate the most money for the ailing textile firm. The winning bidder had until 5 p.m. to provide a check to the company for the full amount.

The goal has been to have the business sold as a continuing business, allowing the company's workers to remain employed.

Riverpoint Lace boasts that its plant, erected in 1809 as the Lippitt Manufacturing company, is the "oldest continuously operating textile mill in the United States." Its current owners acquired it in 1925.

Over the decades, as the privately owned company saw many of its competitors move their operations overseas, it became increasingly difficult for the mill to continue operating.

The auction was initially scheduled for last week, but Orson postponed it to give two prospective buyers time to consider purchasing the business and keep it going.

-- Journal staff writer Talia Buford

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 5:35 PM | Permalink

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