I found this online:
Greenwich Sees the End of Factory Era
March 24, 1985
NY Times
James Brooke
"Greenwich, which has 10 golf courses, four yacht clubs and a Rolls- Royce dealership, is about to lose its only factory.
"On May 31, the Electrolux Corporation will close its red-brick mill in Old Greenwich, which employs 830 workers. Since 1933, millions of vacuum cleaners have left assembly lines there, destined to clean the households of America.
"Electrolux executives say foreign competition and the need to automate have forced them to close the 'mother factory', where the company got its start. Several workers interviewed blamed changes occurring outside the factory walls, especially the fact that Greenwich has become a town predominantly of professional, white-collar workers.
"'I'm the only guy at the Darien station carrying a lunch box - all the others have briefcases,' said James Viteretto, a die-cast repairman, who has worked at the factory for 48 years.
"Mr. Viteretto and about 100 other Electrolux employees plan to retire when the factory closes. Electrolux has promised to retain about 75 people to work at its other installations around the country. The company has set up a job bank and has sponsored seminars on job hunting for the remainder.
"The company will keep its headquarters in Stamford, and it is building a research and development facility in Trumbull.
"The company has put the 22- acre complex, which is across the railroad tracks from the Innis Arden Golf Club, on the market for $15 million. Roger C. Loeffelbein, a vice president, said there have been a number of inquiries.
"'The property undoubtedly would end up becoming other than manufacturing,' he said.
"He said he expected the plant, parts of which were built in 1919, to be converted to a mixed commercial and residential use. The manufacturing done at the Greenwich plant will be divided among the company's other installations.
"In neighboring Port Chester, N.Y., a plant that once made Lifesaver candies is to be converted into 185 luxury condominium apartments with a health club, a swimming pool and racquetball courts. The former factory is being nominated for landmark status on the National Register of Historic Places. Such a listing is not likely for the Electrolux plant.
'It's difficult for a factory to come here and expect to easily house its labor force,' Roger J. Pearson, the First Selectman of Greenwich, said when asked about the future of the Electrolux site.
"Company officials said that only about 20 percent of Electrolux employees live in Greenwich. And town officials acknowledged that factory owners could probably find cheaper locations elsewhere in Fairfield County.
"Last year the average single- family house in Greenwich sold for $369,000. This is a far cry from the 1950's when Stanley Fonder, an emigre from Poland and an Electrolux die-caster, bought two houses in Greenwich for $18,000.
"'All around here were factories - gradually they moved away,'' Mr. Fonder said in the factory as he paused from trimming freshly cast motor housings.
"An estimated five to six miles of conveyor belts facilitate the transformation of such raw materials as plastic pellets, steel sheets and aluminium ingots into the Electrolux Diamond Jubilee cleaner, known on the shop floor as the 'D.J.'
"Electrolux began in Greenwich when Gustaf Sahlin, a Swedish businessman, started producing 'a revolutionary new tank-type cleaner,' which he had imported from Stockholm.
"In 1933, the company moved into a plant that had been occupied during the preceding 14 years by the Dalton Lathe and Tool Company, the Welte Tripp Organ Company and the Magazine Repeating Razor Company. Few local residents gave the new enterprise much chance of success. However, because it was the depths of the Depression, men gathered each morning outside the factory gates, seeking day work.
"Armed with the slogan: ''It is the finest dirt digger,'' Electrolux salesmen fanned out across the nation, knocking on doors. Spurring them on were sales contests offering Packard automobiles for themselves and fur coats for their wives.
"Sales soared and by the mid-1930's the Greenwich factory was churning out a million vacuum cleaners a year. During World War II, production shifted to electric motors and precision controls and the Army-Navy Production Flag flew over the plant.
"After the war, returning G.I.'s snapped up so many vacuum cleaners for their new homes that Electrolux sold on a cash-only basis. When sales started to soften, salesmen returned to the installment plan and adopted a new jingle: 'Electrolux is better - better get an Electrolux.'
"Engineers in the research and development division of the Old Greenwich plant threw themselves into the battle, coming up with the automatic cord winder, the power nozzle and the automatic, self-sealing dirt bag. In one test, workers rubbed catnip in a test rug. Sarah, a cat that was living in the factory building, immediately responded by imbedding hard-to-remove hairs in the rug. Of course, the Electrolux proved up to the job.
"By the mid-1960's the old factory, with its wooden floors and multileveled layout, was beginning to show its age. Over the next two decades, Electrolux opened four new factories, two in Canada, one in Virginia and one in North Carolina. Salesmen still sold the products door to door.
"Last year, company executives decided that one factory would have to close. They selected the oldest one.
"'We need to automate the plants,'' Mr. Loeffelbein said. ''We don't want to be caught like some companies that have waited too long.''
"The average worker at the Greenwich plant has worked there for 18 years, officials said. The shop is non union, and workers earn an average of $9 an hour. Younger workers acknowledged that they were concerned about finding comparably paying jobs in the region.
"In light of the generally friendly management-labor relations, Electrolux executives have developed what they believe is a model program to help laid-off employees find new work.
"The company gave employees six months' notice of the closing and offered a series of seminars to prepare older workers for retirement. In conjunction with state and local officials, religious leaders and 15 major employers in the area, the company is setting up a job center. The center is to open at the plant in mid-May and is to stay open through the summer."
Greenwich Sees the End of Factory Era
March 24, 1985
NY Times
James Brooke
"Greenwich, which has 10 golf courses, four yacht clubs and a Rolls- Royce dealership, is about to lose its only factory.
"On May 31, the Electrolux Corporation will close its red-brick mill in Old Greenwich, which employs 830 workers. Since 1933, millions of vacuum cleaners have left assembly lines there, destined to clean the households of America.
"Electrolux executives say foreign competition and the need to automate have forced them to close the 'mother factory', where the company got its start. Several workers interviewed blamed changes occurring outside the factory walls, especially the fact that Greenwich has become a town predominantly of professional, white-collar workers.
"'I'm the only guy at the Darien station carrying a lunch box - all the others have briefcases,' said James Viteretto, a die-cast repairman, who has worked at the factory for 48 years.
"Mr. Viteretto and about 100 other Electrolux employees plan to retire when the factory closes. Electrolux has promised to retain about 75 people to work at its other installations around the country. The company has set up a job bank and has sponsored seminars on job hunting for the remainder.
"The company will keep its headquarters in Stamford, and it is building a research and development facility in Trumbull.
"The company has put the 22- acre complex, which is across the railroad tracks from the Innis Arden Golf Club, on the market for $15 million. Roger C. Loeffelbein, a vice president, said there have been a number of inquiries.
"'The property undoubtedly would end up becoming other than manufacturing,' he said.
"He said he expected the plant, parts of which were built in 1919, to be converted to a mixed commercial and residential use. The manufacturing done at the Greenwich plant will be divided among the company's other installations.
"In neighboring Port Chester, N.Y., a plant that once made Lifesaver candies is to be converted into 185 luxury condominium apartments with a health club, a swimming pool and racquetball courts. The former factory is being nominated for landmark status on the National Register of Historic Places. Such a listing is not likely for the Electrolux plant.
'It's difficult for a factory to come here and expect to easily house its labor force,' Roger J. Pearson, the First Selectman of Greenwich, said when asked about the future of the Electrolux site.
"Company officials said that only about 20 percent of Electrolux employees live in Greenwich. And town officials acknowledged that factory owners could probably find cheaper locations elsewhere in Fairfield County.
"Last year the average single- family house in Greenwich sold for $369,000. This is a far cry from the 1950's when Stanley Fonder, an emigre from Poland and an Electrolux die-caster, bought two houses in Greenwich for $18,000.
"'All around here were factories - gradually they moved away,'' Mr. Fonder said in the factory as he paused from trimming freshly cast motor housings.
"An estimated five to six miles of conveyor belts facilitate the transformation of such raw materials as plastic pellets, steel sheets and aluminium ingots into the Electrolux Diamond Jubilee cleaner, known on the shop floor as the 'D.J.'
"Electrolux began in Greenwich when Gustaf Sahlin, a Swedish businessman, started producing 'a revolutionary new tank-type cleaner,' which he had imported from Stockholm.
"In 1933, the company moved into a plant that had been occupied during the preceding 14 years by the Dalton Lathe and Tool Company, the Welte Tripp Organ Company and the Magazine Repeating Razor Company. Few local residents gave the new enterprise much chance of success. However, because it was the depths of the Depression, men gathered each morning outside the factory gates, seeking day work.
"Armed with the slogan: ''It is the finest dirt digger,'' Electrolux salesmen fanned out across the nation, knocking on doors. Spurring them on were sales contests offering Packard automobiles for themselves and fur coats for their wives.
"Sales soared and by the mid-1930's the Greenwich factory was churning out a million vacuum cleaners a year. During World War II, production shifted to electric motors and precision controls and the Army-Navy Production Flag flew over the plant.
"After the war, returning G.I.'s snapped up so many vacuum cleaners for their new homes that Electrolux sold on a cash-only basis. When sales started to soften, salesmen returned to the installment plan and adopted a new jingle: 'Electrolux is better - better get an Electrolux.'
"Engineers in the research and development division of the Old Greenwich plant threw themselves into the battle, coming up with the automatic cord winder, the power nozzle and the automatic, self-sealing dirt bag. In one test, workers rubbed catnip in a test rug. Sarah, a cat that was living in the factory building, immediately responded by imbedding hard-to-remove hairs in the rug. Of course, the Electrolux proved up to the job.
"By the mid-1960's the old factory, with its wooden floors and multileveled layout, was beginning to show its age. Over the next two decades, Electrolux opened four new factories, two in Canada, one in Virginia and one in North Carolina. Salesmen still sold the products door to door.
"Last year, company executives decided that one factory would have to close. They selected the oldest one.
"'We need to automate the plants,'' Mr. Loeffelbein said. ''We don't want to be caught like some companies that have waited too long.''
"The average worker at the Greenwich plant has worked there for 18 years, officials said. The shop is non union, and workers earn an average of $9 an hour. Younger workers acknowledged that they were concerned about finding comparably paying jobs in the region.
"In light of the generally friendly management-labor relations, Electrolux executives have developed what they believe is a model program to help laid-off employees find new work.
"The company gave employees six months' notice of the closing and offered a series of seminars to prepare older workers for retirement. In conjunction with state and local officials, religious leaders and 15 major employers in the area, the company is setting up a job center. The center is to open at the plant in mid-May and is to stay open through the summer."
