October 9 -- The change in leadership at Tecumseh Products Co. is not expected to have any impact on the ongoing negotiations to sell the company’s former headquarters and manufacturing plant to and Ohio-based baked-goods maker.
Snack food manufacturer Consolidated Biscuit Co. of McComb, Ohio, has been negotiating with Tecumseh Products to buy the former compressor manufacturing facility in Tecumseh for its seventh plant.
Snack food manufacturer Consolidated Biscuit Co. of McComb, Ohio, has been negotiating with Tecumseh Products to buy the former compressor manufacturing facility in Tecumseh for its seventh plant.
Consolidated Biscuit anticipates adding 500 jobs and about $12 million in personal property investment, with production to start in 2011 once everything has been finalized.
City officials said the project will go as planned. A spokesman for Consolidated Biscuit declined to comment, while Tecumseh Products did not respond to requests for comment.
“We have been in touch with Kent Herrick on this and other projects, and we believe he has the best interests of the company and the community at heart,” said Tecumseh City Manager Kevin Welch. “We don’t see any major hurdles. It’s a long process and something new comes up about every day, but we are all going to take our time and make sure it gets done right.”
Tecumseh Products announced new board and executive-level appointments on Wednesday, a little more than a month after a shareholder vote resulted in the Herrick family regaining control of the company founded by Ray Herrick. His great-grandson Kent Herrick was elected chairman of the board of directors.
As a result of the vote, Ed Buker was fired as chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer, effective Oct. 2. He also resigned from the board. James Wainright, currently vice president of global operations, will serve as acting president of the company while the board conducts a search for a new president and CEO.
Kent Herrick, a former executive with Tecumseh Products, and his father, former Tecumseh Products CEO, president and chairman Todd Herrick, were ousted from the company in the spring of 2007. Todd Herrick then launched a proxy battle to elect Kent Herrick and another nominee to the company’s board. Kent Herrick was named a director in April 2007 as part of a lawsuit settlement between the Herricks and the company.
At the annual meeting in August, shareholders voted to elect the Herrick slate of board candidates and did not approve a recapitalization proposal that would have consolidated the company’s Class A and B shares and reduced the Herrick Foundation’s voting power.
The Tecumseh City Council has a public hearing on a brownfield development plan for Consolidated Biscuit at 7:35 p.m. Oct. 19. The project site covers current Products-owned properties at 402 S. Evans St., 404 S. Evans St., 600 S. Ottawa St., 100 E. Patterson St. and 805 S. Evans St. and will cover lead paint removal and asbestos abatement and removal, said Paula Holtz, Tecumseh economic development director. After the public hearing and council action, the plan will go to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for approval.
The brownfield redevelopment plan would have a 30-year run involving $600,000 that will be reimbursed through tax increment financing (TIF), which allocates a portion of property taxes collected on a parcel for repayment of debts. Consolidated Biscuit will use the funds incrementally and will be repaid with the TIF funds.
City officials said the project will go as planned. A spokesman for Consolidated Biscuit declined to comment, while Tecumseh Products did not respond to requests for comment.
“We have been in touch with Kent Herrick on this and other projects, and we believe he has the best interests of the company and the community at heart,” said Tecumseh City Manager Kevin Welch. “We don’t see any major hurdles. It’s a long process and something new comes up about every day, but we are all going to take our time and make sure it gets done right.”
Tecumseh Products announced new board and executive-level appointments on Wednesday, a little more than a month after a shareholder vote resulted in the Herrick family regaining control of the company founded by Ray Herrick. His great-grandson Kent Herrick was elected chairman of the board of directors.
As a result of the vote, Ed Buker was fired as chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer, effective Oct. 2. He also resigned from the board. James Wainright, currently vice president of global operations, will serve as acting president of the company while the board conducts a search for a new president and CEO.
Kent Herrick, a former executive with Tecumseh Products, and his father, former Tecumseh Products CEO, president and chairman Todd Herrick, were ousted from the company in the spring of 2007. Todd Herrick then launched a proxy battle to elect Kent Herrick and another nominee to the company’s board. Kent Herrick was named a director in April 2007 as part of a lawsuit settlement between the Herricks and the company.
At the annual meeting in August, shareholders voted to elect the Herrick slate of board candidates and did not approve a recapitalization proposal that would have consolidated the company’s Class A and B shares and reduced the Herrick Foundation’s voting power.
The Tecumseh City Council has a public hearing on a brownfield development plan for Consolidated Biscuit at 7:35 p.m. Oct. 19. The project site covers current Products-owned properties at 402 S. Evans St., 404 S. Evans St., 600 S. Ottawa St., 100 E. Patterson St. and 805 S. Evans St. and will cover lead paint removal and asbestos abatement and removal, said Paula Holtz, Tecumseh economic development director. After the public hearing and council action, the plan will go to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for approval.
The brownfield redevelopment plan would have a 30-year run involving $600,000 that will be reimbursed through tax increment financing (TIF), which allocates a portion of property taxes collected on a parcel for repayment of debts. Consolidated Biscuit will use the funds incrementally and will be repaid with the TIF funds.
Recent Tecumseh Products History
2006
— Nov. 20: Todd Herrick announces he will step down as the Tecumseh Products Co.’s CEO after 20 years at the head of the company his grandfather, Ray Herrick, founded. A $100 million credit agreement calls for Herrick to remain as the company’s board chairman after a successor is hired.
2007
— Jan. 19: The products’ board removes Herrick as CEO, replacing him with Jim Bonsall on an interim basis. Bonsall, a managing partner in a corporate-turnaround firm, had been running the company’s small-engine division during restructuring. Kent Herrick is fired from his management position with the company.
— Nov. 20: Todd Herrick announces he will step down as the Tecumseh Products Co.’s CEO after 20 years at the head of the company his grandfather, Ray Herrick, founded. A $100 million credit agreement calls for Herrick to remain as the company’s board chairman after a successor is hired.
2007
— Jan. 19: The products’ board removes Herrick as CEO, replacing him with Jim Bonsall on an interim basis. Bonsall, a managing partner in a corporate-turnaround firm, had been running the company’s small-engine division during restructuring. Kent Herrick is fired from his management position with the company.
— Feb. 28: The company’s board removes Todd Herrick as chairman, replacing him with director David Risley, a former executive at La-Z-Boy in Monroe.
-- April 2: Todd Herrick and Tecumseh Products settle lawsuits over the management of the company resulting in Todd Herrick’s resignation as chairman on April 9. He remains as a non-voting board member as chairman emeritus. Kent Herrick is appointed to the board.
— Aug. 13: Ed Buker becomes CEO and president of the Products. He had been president and CEO of Citation Corp. in Alabama, a maker of cast and machined metal parts. He had previous held management positions in the automotive industry. A condition of his hiring is that he will eventually succeed Risley as chairman.
— Nov. 2: The company announces it will end production activities at its Tecumseh plant by the end of April 2008.
2008
— March 10: The Herrick Foundation recommends putting the company up for sale and says it plans to sell its share of the company’s stock.
— March 12: The company announces it will move its headquarters from Tecumseh to Pittsfield Township outside Ann Arbor.
— June: The company and the Herrick Foundation trade barbs in court over control of the company. The company had instituted a bylaw requiring 75 percent of voting stock to call a special meeting. The old threshold had been 50 percent. The foundation and Herrick family at the time owned more than 40 percent of the company’s voting stock.
— July 18: The company and Herrick Foundation reach an agreement to call a special shareholder meeting to consider removing directors Risley and Peter Banks.
— Dec. 19: Lenawee County Circuit Judge Timothy P. Pickard orders a halt to a planned stock split that would have diluted the Herrick family’s and foundation’s voting power. The company has two types of stock: non-voting Class A and voting Class B. The company claimed the proposed stock split was a move to recapitalize the company.
2009
— February: The company becomes part of an international investigation into alleged price-fixing in the compressor business. The Products, Whirlpool and other companies were cooperating in the investigation, though Tecumseh Products claimed Kent Herrick was not cooperating. The company also announces a new recapitalization plan that would replace the two classes of stock with a single share and compensate Class B shareholders with 1.1 shares of the new stock for every one share of the old stock.
— Aug. 14: Shareholders elect the Herrick Foundation’s slate of four candidates to the company’s board and reject the recapitalization plan. Two of management’s candidates who were elected immediately resign.
— Oct. 7: The board fires Buker as CEO and president and he resigns from the board. Kent Herrick is named chairman. James Wainwright, the company’s vice president of global operations, will serve as acting president until the board finds a new president and CEO.
I am still shocked and saddened by what has happened to Tecumseh in recent years. Once agian we see that any company can fail.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, thanks for sharing.
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