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The eBearing News
September 27, 2006
Z-Star Shuttered
copyright © 2006 eBearing Inc.
The troubled story of Watertown, New York's Z-Star Industries reportedly ends this
week, as the company ceases operations and puts its workforce on the street.
Launched in 2002, Z-Star was a joint venture of two bridge bearing producers, Z-Tech Industries
Inc. (Quebec, Canada, a division of Les Industries Z-Tech Inc.) and TechStar Inc. (USA).
It manufactured bridge bearings and expansion joints and had approximately
15 skilled trade employees in Watertown.
eBearing has presented a history of Z-Star's failed venture, summarized in this recent article:
June 2006: Z-Star faces eviction and shutdown
Essentially, Z-Star simply failed to ever gain traction in the competitive and
relatively closed market for specialty bearings used in bridges and large structures.
A bridge bearing manufacturer contacted by eBearing said they had never heard of Z-Star, but
disagreed with our assessment of the market, characterizing the bridge bearing segment as both open
to competition and generally robust the past several years.
Almost from the beginning, Z-Star fell behind making any substantial repayments on
its regional development loans, meet the minimal requirements or even pay its taxes.
Promised hiring targets tied to financing packages were missed, and renegotiated loan
terms were ignored. For at least the past two years, the company has been on the brink of being
forced to close, yet repeatedly managed to negotiate for another chance to make right.
This week, all the last chances ran out as a court settlement will see Z-Star close for good.
A representative of its primary creditor, the Watertown Local Development Corporation (WLDC),
said: "We certainly gave this company every opportunity ... we're not here
to subsidize companies, we're here to provide subordinate financing."
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- by Bruce A. Carr
from individual research,
tips and commercial sources.
Bruce Carr edited this content.
Copyrighted material; unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
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eBearing.com ... for everything that moves™
Entire contents Copyright © 1999-2011, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered trademarks of eBearing Inc.
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