The W.E. Bassett Co., a business born in the Valley more than 70 years ago, is closing its doors in Shelton, company officials confirmed Wednesday.
The company currently employs 150 people at its Trap Falls Road headquarters, said company president Craig Finney.
The offices will most likely close in November, though the date is tentative.
The Connecticut Post first reported Monday the company was planning to shut its doors in Connecticut.
In a story published on the Hartford Courant’s website Thursday, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti said the number of people who will lose their jobs is actually around 300.
The grim news comes just four months after W.E. Bassett was acquired by Pacific World, a giant cosmetics company based in California.
W.E. Bassett manufactured “personal beauty tools” such as nail clippers and tweezers.
Finney called the impending closing an unfortunate development, but said it goes with the process of integrating the company’s operations with Pacific World.
Finney said the company will work with state and local leaders to help the local workers who will be losing their jobs.
“We’ll be as supportive as we can, however we can,” he said.
Employees interviewed outside the company Wednesday said they’ve known about the closure for about a month.
It came as a surprise, since they had been given the impression at the time of the merger that business would continue as normal. A press release announcing the acquisition noted beauty products were still seeing robust sales despite a national recession.
“There was a formal announcement (to employees) at the end of October,” said a mid-level manager who asked not to be named. “We had representatives from the new company who stood up and talked and said it’s going to be a great merger between two companies.”
Those who spoke to reporters said the company had done a pretty good job of keeping employees informed about developments and how to pursue job placement programs offered by the state.
The manager said a “handful” of employees had been offered jobs with Pacific World Corp. but that most would be looking for work elsewhere.
Valley Legend
The W.E. Bassett Co. is a legendary local company, a call back to the days when thousands worked in factories in the lower Valley. The factories weren’t owned by far away mega-companies. They were owned by local families, such as the Bassetts — and the products were made in the U.S.A.
Times have changed.
William C. H. Bassett, son grandson of founder William E. Bassett, still works as an executive at the company.
His father, William C. Bassett, worked there up until October. William C. Bassett declined to be interviewed for this story.
The Bassett family is known throughout the Valley for its involvement in several nonprofit organizations, and donations to various causes. They define the phrase “good corporate citizens.”
William C. Bassett was a founding member of the board of directors for the Valley Community Foundation.
He has served on the Birmingham Group’s board of directors for 15 years. Birmingham Group is now known as BHCare.
“His philanthropy comes genetically,” said James Cohen, president of the Valley Community Foundation. “The Bassett family has a gene that most other people don’t have. It didn’t have to be learned.”
“Harry and Bill are the most philanthropic people that I have ever known,” Cohen said. “There is no one else who comes even close to them.”
Others in the community, such as Bill Purcell, president of the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce, echoed that sentiment.
“It’ll be a void in this community without them here because they have been a mainstay for so many years,” Purcell said.
“They’re a tribute to community spirit and remembering their roots, and looking forward,” James Ryan, executive director of the Shelton Economic Development Corporation, said.
The Bassett family created two funds at the Valley Community Foundation in 2004 and 2005, to be able to continue to give money to Valley causes. One is unrestricted, allowing the Valley Community Foundation to fund the projects it feels need money.
“They were a great part of the Valley economy for many years,” Cohen said. “A giant, in terms of their field. But above all, they put their money where their mouth was. They put the money back into the Valley non-profits and I know they will continue to do that on a permanent basis.”
Corporate Citizen
In a 1991 history of the Naugatuck Valley, W.E. Bassett was listed as a thriving company — surviving when other manufacturing firms in the area were struggling.
William E. Bassett started the company in 1939, as a small contract machine shop. During World War II, the company made munitions parts. By 1947, it had transitioned into the manufacturing of manicure items — such as nail clippers and tweezers.
“According to Harry Bassett, it owes much of its success to its loyal group of long-term employees,” noted a page in the book, The Lower Naugatuck Valley: A Rich and Beautiful Prospect.
“Working as a team, the individuals who comprise the W.E. Bassett company never lose sight of their goal to produce the finest products of their kind in the world,” the author wrote.
The company opened a plant in Derby on Roosevelt Drive near the Yale Boat House in 1952 — and by 1991 had expanded the plant five times since, the book notes.
Then in 1978, a second plant was built in Shelton. The company’s headquarters moved there in 1988.
But about 10 years ago, facing pressure from competition and rising costs, the company moved its manufacturing operations oversees. The shiny metallic nail clippers started to read “China” instead of “Derby.”
The company’s headquarters remained in Shelton, as did employees involved with engineering, design, packaging, and distribution.
“That was an extremely difficult and upsetting thing to this family,” VCF president James Cohen said of the move overseas. “But they understood that if they didn’t do that, they would have been out of business.”
“It really was a question of survival in a pretty competitive industry,” Purcell said.
Cohen said the family found an overseas company that would make the product to their specifications.
“They were not going to allow a knock-off item to have their name on it,” Cohen said.
The Nail Clipper
W.E. Bassett’s iconic product for the past 65 years was the fingernail clipper.
First introduced in 1947, the TRIM line of clippers were “completely new in concept and design — one that placed emphasis on style and quality and made its mark in a highly competitive field,” one Valley history book says.
A 1994 New Yorker article by Nicholson Baker details the clipper in poetic depth — highlighting the tiny rivets and ‘nibs’ that made Bassett’s clippers unique.
The product earned “high marks among power users,” including Jerry Lewis, who once called the company directly to order a dozen five-inch triple-cut Trim nail files, Baker noted.
The small “Derby” label on the clippers was a point of pride among locals who were tickled to see their hometown stamped on a product purchased worldwide.
Valley United Way President Jack Walsh recalled taking a trip to Ireland in 1980 where he forgot to pack nail clippers.
He went to a Dublin pharmacy for a new pair and a grin crossed his face when he opened the package.
“I said ‘Believe it or not, this nail clipper was made in my hometown,’” Walsh remembered telling the clerk. “You’re always proud of those things.”
Going Forward
Purcell said he and other Valley business leaders would try to entice another company to the site and also try to help the employees affected.
“The hope is we can identify someone in a growth mode who will see the opportunity, be attracted by this community, be attracted by the availability of labor,” Purcell said. “It’s a beautiful campus. It’s a beautiful facility.”
“They have been a benevolent employer and a great corporate citizen,” Purcell said. “I know they’re doing all they can to support those affected in this transition.”
Shelton Assessor Bill Gaffney said the company had real estate, vehicles, and personal property totaling $5,792,400 of the city’s grand list. By comparison, the city’s 10th highest taxpayer, BIC Consumer Products Manufacturing, has about $15.5 million worth of property on the list.
“They will be missed,” Purcell said. “They’ll be missed by the community because of their strong community ethic, their spirit of volunteerism, and their generosity to so many causes.”
Walsh had similar thoughts: “When you lose a company like this, it’s more than the money,” he said. “It’s their personal involvement. That will be difficult to replace over the long run.”
