BOARDMAN Cold Metal to move headquarters back from Pittsburgh

Lower rent is attracting executives who are trying to save money and bring Cold Metal out of bankruptcy.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
BOARDMAN -- Cold Metal Products is moving its headquarters back to Boardman after two years in suburban Pittsburgh.
The steel processor, operating under bankruptcy protection, says the move to 839 Southwestern Run will cut costs.
Duane Wycoff, vice president of human resources and communication, said the office space is smaller in Boardman but rent costs less than in Sewickley, Pa.
Cold Metal moved its executive staff to Pennsylvania from offices on South Avenue in 2000.
Raymond Torok, company president and chief executive, said then that he wanted to leave the Mahoning Valley to be closer to the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport because top executives traveled a great deal.
Also, it was hard to attract candidates for high-level positions because they didn't want to live in the Youngstown area, he said.
The bankruptcy filing in August changed the company's priorities.
"We're looking at every possible avenue to reduce costs as we reorganize," he said.
A staff of 12 is coming to Boardman, including the top executives and a customer service group.
The company still has 30 people in its South Avenue office, including its corporate accounting and computer management staffs.
The company is under pressure from its creditors to cut costs and develop a plan to emerge from bankruptcy court as a profitable company.
Investors sought
Wycoff said the key to the company's survival is finding investors to fund the company's reorganization attempt. Cold Metal hired an investment banker last month to lead that effort and advise the company.
"There's definitely a sense of urgency," he said.
If investors can't be found, the company would be forced to begin sell its plants, either as a group or in pieces, he said.
Cold Metal employs about 350 people. Plants in Ottawa, Ohio; Indianapolis; and Roseville, Mich., are operating under bankruptcy protection. It also has plants in Canada.
In filing for bankruptcy protection, the company said it was being hurt by a poor economy, high pension and health benefit costs for retirees and unprofitable plants in Campbell and Indianapolis.
Both of those plants were closed in August, but the Indianapolis plant was reopened later.
Workers at the former Campbell plant, which employed 116, are trying to find investors willing to back their attempt to reopen the plant.
Like the company, they also are in a hurry. They are trying to come up with funding and an operating plan before a Jan. 21 court hearing to sell the machinery in that plant and a previously closed Cold Metal plant in Connecticut.
Reopening the Campbell plant also would require resolving environmental problems, including the disposal of hazardous chemicals on site.
A consultant says the workers could reopen the plant before March. Projections call for more than 50 workers to be brought back in the first year.
shilling@vindy.com