SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY (BRAIN) — A co-owner of Serotta's parent company told a local newspaper that the company's planned shutdown is temporary.
Earlier this week, Bill Watkins, the CEO of Serotta, and company founder Ben Serotta each told BRAIN that the company had run out of money and had shut down its California factory. Watkins and Serotta said a limited staff was completing outstanding orders at the Saratoga Falls factory and would shut down that plant in about two weeks.
Earlier this year Serotta merged with Blue Competition Cycles and Mad Fiber to form Divine Cycling Group. Representatives from DCG have not responded to several inquiries from BRAIN by phone and email over the last several weeks. A Mad Fiber spokesman told BRAIN on Tuesday that the wheel company is continuing production and had had no layoffs.
But Dan Devine, a co-owner and manager of the group, told the local TimesUnion.com that the factory shutdown was temporary.
"(O)ur intention is to continue operations in Saratoga once a restructuring of the business is complete," Devine told the paper in an email, according to an article posted on the paper's website Thursday.
The article noted that "The emailed statement from Devine seemed to point to a temporary closing. The details of the restructuring have not been finalized."
The paper also said it had not spoken to officials at the plant in Saratoga.
Ben Serotta told BRAIN on Wednesday that he and Watkins were negotiating with DCG to "extricate" the Serotta brand from the group.
