Dateline: October 9, 2003

Local manufacturer ceases production

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

The tools at Clarendon Manufacturing & Distributing Co. are quiet now, and several local jobs have disappeared with the end of production at the facility.

General Manger Darrell Leffew said his company had no other option than to stop production on September 25 after more than 30 years in business.

“We had gotten so far behind financially that we couldn’t continue,” Leffew said. “We couldn’t meet our payroll and our other obligations.”

Clarendon Manufacturing specialized in building elevating scrapers; and for the last three years, the company had been producing the S-17E – a 17-yard elevating scraper – for the Scotland-based Terex Equipment Ltd.

Leffew said Terex had recently indicated to him that the market was going to have to improve before any more of the scrapers would be ordered.

When Clarendon unveiled the prototype of the S-17E in August of 2000, expectations were that the local firm would land a three-year 50-scraper contract with Terex, which could have led to the creation of as many as 70 jobs with all the income being generated from outside of the local economy.

“We never got a contract from Terex; we just got purchase orders for two machines at a time,” Leffew said. “We built 10 scrapers before we ever made any money.”

In all, Clarendon built 18 scrapers for Terex and had started production on the three more.

“At one time we had 16 people on the payroll, including myself,” Leffew said. “We had four people on a night shift.”

Leffew said there are many uncertainties about the future of Clarendon Manufacturing but that this “appears to be the end.” He said he has been grateful for the support of the local community.

“We feel bad that we couldn’t continue,” he said. “The CEDC (Clarendon Economic Development Corporation) has supported us, and we feel bad that we couldn’t follow through. But that wasn’t our plan.”

The CEDC most recently awarded $20,000 to the firm to help purchase equipment.

“We appreciate the support the town and the area have given us,” Leffew said. “We appreciate the people who worked here and put forth the effort, and we appreciate our local lending institutions.

“We just hope everything ends as well as possible under the circumstances.”