Published: September 02, 2007 11:38 pm         

FISHER PRICE: The rise and fall of local industry

At its height, Fisher-Price provided more than 950 jobs for local residents, earning the Village of Medina the nickname “Toy Town.” And, for a time, it was.

When Mattel Inc., parent company of Fisher-Price Inc., officially closed its Medina doors in May of 1997, the immediate affect on the community was devastating — but it wasn’t the end, said Village Historian Todd Bensley, even if the future wasn’t as optimistic at the time.

“We’re a pretty resilient community,” Bensley said. “We were able to bounce back.

The rise

The very first toy produced at the Medina Fisher-Price plant March of 1970 was #190 Pull-a-Tune Pony.

Ten months later the plant had produced more than $3.5 million worth of toys with a total value production exceeding $10 million and had plans to double production for 1971. A 300,000 square foot warehouse on Salt Works Road was completed in 1973, symbolizing the growth of the company and the village’s reputation as a major toy manufacturing center.

Fisher-Price purchased the Park Avenue complex in Oct. 1969 after a year’s search, according to The Fisher-Pricer newsletter from December 1970. Previously home to the Heinz Co. from 1899 to 1973 as part of their food processing and can-making operations, the complex was easily reconditioned within three months, employing over 350 people.

Training programs were quickly initiated as well as an employee Profit Sharing program. By the end of the first summer, mail order production was transferred from the East Aurora plant to Medina and six major toys were produced. Their biggest being #930 Play Family Action Garage.

“We expect Medina to grow and add increasingly to the profitability of the company in the years ahead.” stated then Medina Vice President and General Manager Harvey W. Busch in the December 1970 newsletter.

And grow the company — and Medina, did. By 1980, the company’s 50th anniversary, Fisher-Price sales approached $400 million and had become an integral part of the local economy. In May 1980, the Medina plant celebrated the production of its 100,000,000 toy, declaring Medina “Fisher-Price Week.”

“That was the lifeblood. To be a Fisher-Price employee you had something,” said Medina resident Mike Jones who was a seasonal assembly line worker in the mid-1990s. “That was premium employment around here. I was tickled pink over the type of money I was making.”

One of the best features of the plant was the on-site store, Jones said. He can remember women leaving on Friday afternoons around the holidays with carts filled with toys they had a hand at making.

Fisher-Price employees could easily get a loan at the local bank, pay the bills or buy a second car, he said, it was bringing money into their homes. The company even brought floats for the local parades.

“You couldn’t ask for anything better,” said Jones, who remembers packaging a ride on dump truck. “It was great because you’d go to work and you’d always have fun. It was like one big happy family. You ate together, took breaks together. That’s the type of employment it was.”

The fall

What goes up, must come down — so the saying goes — and perhaps the same was true for “Toy Town.”

Sales dropped to $204 million at the end of 1983, down from $393.8 million in 1982. Fisher-Price reported revenues of $280 million in 1994, half of what the company was earning in 1980.

Minor cuts at the Medina plant were made in December 1992 and January 1993 that totaled less than 30 lay-offs. The official buy out of Fisher-Price by Mattel Inc. came in August 1993 for the purchase price of $1 billion in stock.

“After Fisher-Price sold to Mattel there was a lot of speculation that it was going to be going by the wayside,” Bensley said. “You could just kind of tell the writing was on the wall at that point.”

Some say it was the threat of a union, others say it was the slow decline of sales. Either way, Mattel announced January 18, 1995 that they would be closing their Park Avenue operations. Over 700 employees, many of whom had worked at Fisher-Price since day one, were out of work by June.

Approximately 250 employees were retained in the Rota-mold department where outdoor play equipment and larger ride-on toys were produced in an effort to maintain production in Medina.

The down-sizing was preceded by the closing of the Holland plant in July 1990 and the East Aurora production facility five months later, leaving 1,170 Western New Yorkers without jobs. Mattel expected to save $10 million by closing the Medina plant.

“They kind of shut it down by department,” said Albion resident Joya Fitch, who stayed on in Rota-mold. “It affected whole families. It was something that was close to home.”

An economic impact study conducted by the Coalition for Economic Justice in March 1995 estimated that area households would lose $37 million in earnings within a year’s time and that for every job lost at the plant, two more jobs in the community would eventually be lost as well. The average annual income was $23,000.

“With Fisher-Price you had a number of families where the husband and wife both worked there,” said Medina Mayor Clayton Ehrenreich. “All of a sudden there were a lot of homes for sale and people leaving town.”

Fifty more were laid off September of 1996, another 75 in March of 1997. The final announcement that Mattel would be closing its doors in Medina came April 28 and within two weeks the factory was nothing but a ghost.

“The Medina plant had one of the best records. Their production was above and beyond, no recalls. We put out a perfect product for them.” Jones said. “Three hundred people out of work. Boom. They were ready to go to China. They up and walk away and don’t care what they leave in the aftermath.”

Picking up the pieces

“I came home and sat on the living room floor and cried,” recalls Kevin Robison of the day he was laid off after 25 years of employment with Fisher-Price. He had three sons at Lyndonville High School and had no idea what would happen next.

“It was devastating,” Bensley said. “It definitely shook up the community. I still don’t think we’ve recovered from that as far as housing goes.”

Through the Orleans County Job Development Agency, a Rapid Response Task Force was put into effect after the first wave of lay-offs, said Medina resident James Hancock, who was director of the agency at the time. A career center offering re-training and re-employment aid opened on the second floor of the S.A. Cook building on Main Street, where Curvin’s is now, with the help of state and federal funding. The Medina Area Association of Churches also provided assistance.

Robison was hired by Mattel at their facility in Augusta, Ga., a job that last for a year and a half before operations were closed there, too. Mattel flew him home every weekend so that his family didn’t have to relocate, he said. Eventually he found work at the Pet Smart distribution center in Brockport and is now living in Medina where he is a job coach with the Arc of Orleans.

“We’ve had other businesses come in, but nothing the size of Fisher-Prize,” Hancock said. “Just the pay roll alone was hard to replace. Sometimes it takes a decade or more to recover, and then sometimes you don’t even get to that point.”

“People did leave the area, people did retire, people did find other jobs. You do the best you can,” he said. “It really is encouraging to see our downtown continue to strive and work hard to stay in business. That’s a credit to them.”

Contact reporter Nicole Colemanat 798-1400, ext. 2227.