January 31, 2007

C&A CEO Resigns

Bankrupt U.S. auto interiors supplier Collins & Aikman Corp. which plans to sell off its business units, said on Wednesday that Frank Macher has resigned as president and chief executive officer.

Bet he got a huge compensation for quitting.

I use to work at Collins and Aikman, from 2000-2003, and got caught up in the big lay-off in 2003. Things were bad at the time I involuntarily quit. We had to bring our own pens in, they would only buy pencils and they limit how much paper we could buy each month.

How did C&A get into such a spot?

2 things, the Board of Directors and under bidding to get programs.

The B of D were shady, buying businesses that belonged to themselves for outragous sums and then liquidating them only months after C&A bought them.

The also under bid to get programs. One of the programs I was working on at C&A, the Jeep Liberty front & rear fascia, we were bascially attaching a $20 bill to each fascia. That is how much they underbid to get the program thinking that they could get Chrysler to raise their prices after the program launched.

Collins & Aikman announced in November that it would sell its operations in whole or in parts rather than emerge from bankruptcy. It filed for court protection from creditors in May 2005.

I still have plenty of friends that are working for C&A, although the plant I was working at was closed down last year.

C&A is in bad shape and may not last long enough to be picked apart and sold.

This is what can happen to a company when the executives don't have the companies best interest in their sites.


Posted by Quality Weenie at January 31, 2007 05:47 PM | TrackBack
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