Kyklos Bearing International announced this month it would cease operations as of Dec. 31, sending about 300 people into the job market.
The bearings plant at Perkins and Hayes Avenue is rooted to the very start of the U.S. automotive industry.
KBI opened as New Departure, a name that dates back to 1888.
New Departure Bell was founded by brothers Albert and Edward Rockwell of Bristol, Conn. They formed the company to manufacture a new type of electric doorbell they’d invented.
In 1900, the company received a trial order for 120 bearings from the Old Motor Works, the largest automotive manufacture of the time.
But it was more than six decades before New Departure moved to Sandusky, and war was a factor in the decision.
“Why Sandusky was chosen as the spot for this development is an interesting story in itself. It is sufficient to say that the natural advantages of the city, its shoreline location, its ample supply of water, its east-west transportation facilities and other factors were the determining considerations,” an article in the Register Star Journal dated Jan. 30, 1945, states.
In addition, the new location in Sandusky lessened vulnerability to enemy attack. The new bearings plant would be safer in Ohio — a harder target for enemy aircraft to reach — than the plants on the East Coast.
New Departure
New Departure in Sandusky opened June 14, 1947, covering 14 acres under a single roof.
That same year the United Auto Workers organized hourly employees and the first union contract was negotiated and became effective in August 1948.
The plant prospered.
In 1965, General Motors combined New Departure with Hyatt Roller Bearing division to form New Departure Hyatt Bearing Division.
The company also brought 450 new families to Sandusky beginning in ‘65, as workers transferred from plants in New Jersey and Connecticut.
It happened again in 1989 when New Departure started a process of transferring 112 employees from Bristol, Conn., to Sandusky when they consolidated its spindle bearing operation.
“Some of the workers called Sandusky 'the frontier' because of its lack of shopping and other amenities. They thought it was treeless, wind-swept, flat,” one New Departure executive told the Register at the time.
Changes
The end of bearings manufacturing in Sandusky almost happened in 1986, when New Departure-Hyatt made the decision to leave the commercial ball bearings business, the industry it virtually invented in the 1900s. according to reports published at the time.
GM merged Delco Moraine and New Departure-Hyatt into Delco Moraine.
The restructuring and changes to survive continued when in 1995, GM named the division Delphi Automotive.
Delphi declared bankruptcy and was purchased by KBI, a subsidiary of HHI Group Holdings Inc. in 2008.
Many locals expressed the feeling that the beginning of the end occurred with a judge's 2008 order in the Delphi bankruptcy proceeding. The judge required General Motors to subsidize KBI payroll until 2015. The subsidy meant KBI could not actively seek other contracts for years.
Employees and union representatives have said KBI could not be competitive with overseas manufacturers they accused of “dumping” bearings into the U.S. Market.
By the numbers
• New Departure employed 2,839 people in 1973. Stable employment continued into 1975 with 2,900 people working at the plant. At the height of its operations it employed about 5,000 people
• The Ford plant on Tiffin Avenue at the same time employed 2,494 workers.
• In 1974, it was estimated that $64 million was added to the Sandusky economy from payroll and local purchases.
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