[Poodlebrain]

"Sounds like a complete failure by top management."

I don't think so. The article never quotes management as saying "We're broke." Management may be shutting down to preserve as much of the owners' wealth as possible. If demand for your product declines to near zero, are you required to try producing different products? No.

Schrade has never produced collector quality knives, but they produced decent a enough pocketknife for everyday carry. That market has been destroyed by zero tolerance policies at schools, no more gifts to schoolboys, and by post-9/11 travel policies, can't carry equals don't need.

It sucks for the workers, but those are the breaks. It's not like management is getting to keep their jobs either.

[reagandemo]

True, but why did they recently go on a huge building project adding large amount of space and capacity along with contacting the State's Labor Department telling them that they were looking to add workers? Remember all way after 911 and they should have known what their market would do. Sounds like bad planning and management to me.