Just saw this come across American Libraries Direct newsletter that was in my email inbox this morning. Seems that Highsmith was bought by Lab Safety Supply and the company has announced that they will close Highsmith on November 1, 2008. Click here for the story. Highsmith was located in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin and had been a supplier of supplies, furniture, and equipment to libraries around the world.

Comments

September 12, 2008 08:53 PM | Posted by Highsmith employee

I've worked @ Higshmith since 1990, stood 20' away from Duncan Highsmith when he announced the sale to us employees. I saw tears running down his face. He said telling his father he sold the company is the hardest thing he has ever done. Highsmith has always been a family owned company, employees were truly family. Hugh's wife used to hand out paychecks every week. Gov't cutting budgets of schools & libraries, our core customers, made Highsmith & similar companies make less $ every year. This newspaper article is inaccurate; Highsmith is not CLOSING, we now have a new owner. We are still selling the same products to the same customers @ the same prices. We're moving to the next town, not CLOSING. I've taken frantic calls from customers every day this week, panicking because of this article. Librarian websites & blogs are copying & posting the article, people read the headline & think Highsmith has CLOSED. Our competitors are emailing this article to their customers telling them Highsmith is out of business, I spend hours every day clearing up the misinformation. I have more important things to do in my job than counter rumors & misinformation. Many employees decided not to take the jobs that were offered to them. Some are going back to school, some are starting small businesses, etc. I'm not upper mgmt, not middle mgmt. I have always & continue to respect Duncan & Hugh highly. Please do not think poorly of Duncan, Lab Safety, Grainger. They did not shut our doors, they kept us open.

DAILY ZEITGEIST

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