Hiller Barge furloughs employees
A change in operation at a Brownsville company has resulted in a substantial short-term layoff. But it will also result in more than 30 new jobs being created before the end of the year, owners say.
On Tuesday, most of the workers at the former Hiller Barge Co. were laid off. The reason is that the major barge contract that company had with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers must be reassigned by the corps because Hiller Barge filed for bankruptcy.
But a new company is in place, HBC Barge LLC, to which the barge contract can be assigned.
“We had a temporary layoff yesterday (Tuesday),’ Walt Kuhns, who, with partners Gabe Centofanti and Scott Eicher, are the new owners of the company.
He said the layoffs should be from three to six weeks.
Kuhns explained that because of the contract the former firm had with the corps, the corps was required to reassign its work in case of bankruptcy.
“We just closed the deal on the purchase of the company on April 17,’ Kuhns said.
“We expect to get the Army Corps contract back and we are in the process of looking for new markets and getting new orders.
“We have 115 employees now and we will have about 150 by the end of the year,’ he said.
Kuhns said Ed Wilhelm, owner of Hiller Barge Co., declared bankruptcy on Tuesday.
All three of the new owners are Uniontown natives.
The company for many years made river barges under the banner of Hillman Barge Co. Trinity Industries of Texas purchased it and later closed the plant.
Wilhelm and Kruse in 1998 bought the property and began manufacturing fabricated steel, some of which was used to build the new stadium in Pittsburgh.
Wilhelm and Kruse formed the Metal Processing Co., which evolved into Hiller Barge.