Restoring Quality: Hathaway Shirts (DVD
and VHS)
©1994 Films Media Group, 30 minutes
#FMG-BZM7831, Price $129
Don Sappington, former CEO of Maine’s Bass Shoe Company, was handpicked to
run the Hathaway Shirt Company after its Park Avenue owner, Linda Wachner, CEO
of Warnaco, decided to close the plant. After workers protested the shutdown,
former Maine Governor Jock McKernon put together a group of investors to buy
Hathaway from Wachner, and then hired Sappington as CEO.
Hathaway was a Maine tradition. The factory had operated in Waterville for
160 years. But with low-cost foreign imports hurting the domestic garment
industry in the 1990s, Linda Wachner turned to cutting costs sharply, which also
hurt shirt quality. When Wachner’s strategy failed, she decided to abandon the
plant. But the people of Maine rallied to save this proud Maine institution,
raising the investment money and the backing of federal, state, and local
governments. Sappington decided to restore traditional Hathaway quality,
convinced that appealing to the high end of the market would make Hathaway
profitable again. This video is a classic study in cost versus quality!
International customers: Sorry, we have U.S. and Canada distribution rights only
on this title.
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