If the shoe fits

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Jul 15, 2002 | by Cahalan, Steve

Chief Executive Officer John Tadewald had hoped Tarkman Associates Inc. would have more employees by now, nearly one year after the company purchased the former LaCrosse Footwear Inc. factory on St. Andrew Street.

But he said sales have been slower than expected because of the slow economy. And as of last week, the footwear manufacturer had nine full-time employees and one part-time worker. It had 15 full-time and three part-time employees late last summer, but laid off some employees - mostly in February because of a slowdown in footwear orders.

This month, Tarkman Associates is adding two product lines - hip boots and chest waders - that Tadewald predicts will result in more employees. One laidoff worker returned two weeks ago as the company prepared to begin making the new products, and Tadewald hopes a few more laid-off workers will return within a month.

"I was glad to be called back," production worker Diane Collins said last week as she trimmed excess material from overshoes. "I'm hoping it picks up, that things start going great. I love working here."

Collins worked for LaCrosse Footwear for 12 years until she lost her job in June 2001, when the factory closed. She returned to the plant as a Tarkman Associates employee in December but was laid off in April. She returned to work two weeks ago.

Since last August, Tarkman Associates has been making waterproof vinyl boots and overshoes. The company will have shipped 240,000 pairs by Sept. 1, Tadewald estimated. He had hoped the company would make 350,000 to 400,000 pairs in its first 12 months.

"But the business hasn't been there," Tadewald said, because of the slow economy. "We couldn't develop our sales as fast as we hoped."

With two new product lines and an improving economy, Tadewald hopes to have 30 employees by the end of 2002. "I'd like to think we'd be at 50 people by spring of next year," he said. He hopes to have 100 employees within two years.

"If we can't double our business (in the company's second year), I'll be amazed," Tadewald said. The company also plans to begin making more new products next year, he said.

LaCrosse Footwear had more than 1,000 employees in the city in the early 1990s but had been shifting production to the Far East in the plant's last few years in order to compete with other footwear makers. In May 2001, it announced it would close the plant in La Crosse and lay off about 139 employees. Most production ended June 28, 2001.

Last Aug. 1, LaCrosse Footwear sold the manufacturing plant, factory outlet store building and some equipment to Tarkman Associates for $1.1 million. And in December, LaCrosse Footwear finished moving its corporate headquarters from La Crosse to Portland, Ore. LaCrosse Footwear still operates a distribution center in La Crosse and the factory outlet store - it leases that building from Tarkman Associates.

"We want to lease out some building space," Tadewald said of the four-story factory building. Tarkman Associates uses about 100,000 square feet, and the other 300,000 square feet is for lease or sale, he said.

Two tenants, including La Crosse Footwear, are leasing a total of about 16,000 square feet of space in the factory building. The rest of the available space could be used for apartments, condominiums, offices, warehousing, storage or manufacturing, Tadewald said.

The slow economy has hindered efforts to lease space, Tadewald said. "I think people are concerned about committing to any additional cost," he said.

As originally planned, Tarkman Associates has sold land that was not essential to its footwear operation. So far, it has sold about five acres to four different buyers who are in the process of building structures or plan to build in the near future, Tadewald said. Tarkman Associates still has 10 acres that it bought from LaCrosse Footwear.

The year-old company's footwear will remain competitive with imports because of low overhead and because most of its products are made by machinery, which reduces labor costs, Tadewald said. Most Tarkman Associates production workers are paid slightly lower wages than LaCrosse Footwear paid, but some are paid higher wages than before, he said.