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Montana Silversmiths of Columbus lays off 18 as market slows
One of Montana’s corporate success stories is reacting to soft markets in the retail industry by laying off 18 of its 207 employees.
Jan Falstad Billings Gazette
Montana Silversmiths of Columbus has laid off 14 employees at its Columbus manufacturing plant on the banks of the Yellowstone River and four at its subassembly plant at 2521 Enterprise Ave. in Billings.
Dennis Potzman, president and chief operating officer, says 2003 represents great times and challenging times all rolled together.
Montana Silversmiths, which manufactures Western style jewelry, watches, belts and home apparel items, is celebrating its 30th anniversary Thursday. It has the fourth most recognized brand in its industry, according to a recent national survey.
The company has been nominated for the third time for the manufacturer of the year by Western Image Awards of Dallas. Montana Silversmiths won that award in 1999 and would like a repeat performance.
And the company is enjoying an all-time high market share, Potzman says.
So, why the layoffs?
He says retail sales nationally are off, and Western goods are following that trend.
Basically, Potzman says, businesses have trouble when the world is unstable.
"There’s a lot of uncertainty out there, the dot-com bust, the stock market, corporate unrest, 9/11 and terrorism pretty much set the stage for the big whammy, the Iraqi war," Potzman says.
Potzman says Montana Silversmiths remains healthy. A rival company in Nevada closed, and his company gained those customers.
Montana Silversmiths is a Montana born company. In 1993, a Dallas-based corporation now called Arena Brands bought the corporation.
Slow sales can bounce back quickly, Potzman says.
"We saw the same thing after 9/11, three months of softness, then the market came back really nice," he says.
Only this time, the comeback is taking longer.
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