News

Crane Stationery has made the difficult decision to relocate operations from its current home in North Adams, Massachusetts to the home of parent company Mohawk Fine Papers in Cohoes, New York in the coming months. 

The extended shutdown due to COVID-19 caused financial hardship necessitating substantial changes to the company’s structure in order to reflect reduced sales and demand. The layoffs announced for next month, following the conclusion of its Federal PPP Loan, have been widely publicized. “We have spent the last several weeks determining how to reposition our company while keeping the greatest number of employees working,” Crane Stationery noted in a press release. 

In recent weeks Crane has examined all scenarios for continuing operations. The current facilities in North Adams represent too much space and unsustainable overhead costs given our decreased business scale. 

Moving to Cohoes, New York will provide efficiencies, including shared resources with its parent company, while the relative proximity to the Berkshires will enable Crane to bring the craftspeople, whose knowledge and expertise will continue to create the majority of the work it does today, to the same impeccable quality standards. 

From a community perspective, this decision was not taken lightly. “For almost 220 years Crane has made its home in the Berkshires. It’s an indelible part of our history and our culture, and an enormous point of pride”, said Tom O’Connor, CEO of Mohawk. “We recognize that our departure will be felt by the North Adams community, but at the heart of this decision is our commitment to ensuring that the extraordinary heritage of the Crane brand lives on. Crane partners with hundreds of small business retailers around the country and serves customers who have lifelong and even generational relationships with Crane. We are optimistic about our next chapter and being able to continue that legacy.” 

Throughout all the recent challenges, Crane has maintained a commitment to protecting the wellbeing of all employees and will continue to do so through this transition. 

Since 1801, Crane has created personalized and hand-crafted stationery in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. For more information on Crane products please visit www.crane.com.