Hobart family’s last brand leaving Troy for Kentucky

By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer – Dayton Daily News Updated 9:57 PM Friday, June 18, 2010

TROY — Hobart Cabinet Co., the last family-owned Hobart company founded more than a century ago here, has been sold to a Cincinnati-based company and has moved production to northern Kentucky.

Founded in 1906, the cabinet and office furniture manufacturer had been beset by significant increases in steel costs, followed by the loss of its primary banking relationship and main line of credit, said Martin Hobart, the fourth generation to lead the company. The company also lost its largest customer, a fourth of its business.

Last July, the company filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dayton. The company’s assets were sold to Hunkar on May 13. In addition to prepayments totaling $42,188, Hunkar paid $24,588 for equipment, intangible assets and inventory, records show.

That $24,588 will go toward U.S. trustee and attorney fees, the commission of Sunbelt of Miami Valley LLC (which brokered the sale), and secured claims of Fifth Third Bank and the Internal Revenue Service.

Hobart Cabinet’s staff had shrunk from 25 in 2001 to eight. Five production employees were offered jobs at Hunkar in Kentucky, Hobart said. Two accepted, two retired and one left the company, he said.

Hobart and two others, now Hunkar employees, are working to grow the Hobart Cabinet brand from Troy.

Two other namesake Hobart companies — Hobart Corp. and Hobart Brothers Co. — grew into international businesses now owned by Illinois Tool Works.

“It’s been difficult personally, but we’ve done everything we could to keep the brand going,” Hobart said.

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