Huntington Herald-Press
CFM Corp. is a leading integrated manufacturer of home products and related accessories in North America. CFM designs, develops, manufactures and distributes a line of hearth, barbecue and outdoor products.
The company's major brands include Vermont Castings and Majestic Fireplaces.
All sales, marketing and customer service office operations were moved from the Huntington plant to CFM's headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario, in February 2000, at a cost of 30 local jobs.
At that time, the Huntington plant had more than 475 employees, and company officials told production employees that manufacturing would continue here.
In February 2004, however, the company notified city officials that it planned to close out production of fireplace inserts and stoves at the East Market Street complex in early April of that year. That decision meant the end of 215 local jobs. Company officials said the move would save money and that some of the jobs could end up outside the United States.
Production was shifted to Canada and Mexico. However, a some Huntington plant employees were called back in June 2004, on a temporary basis, because of an increase in demand that couldn't be met by the workers in Canada and Mexico.
The 2004 decision left about 260 employees working in the warehousing/distribution operation in Huntington.
The city's CFM operation is the direct linear descendant of The Majestic Company, which was founded in 1894 in Morenci, Mich., and came to Huntington in 1907.
Majestic was acquired in 1995 by CFM International, a hearth products company founded in 1987. That created a new company known as CFM Majestic, which acquired Harris Systems of Skokie, Ill., makers of fireplace accessories, in January 1998.
CFM Majestic launched a line of barbecue grills in March 1999 and, in July of the same year began a purchase of Monessen Hearth Systems of Kentucky, a manufacturer of gas hearth products.
CFM Corp. is currently owned by Teacher's Private Capital, the private equity arm of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, as the result of a purchase completed in April 2005.
This past January, CFM sold two of what it called "non-core" assets - CFM-Europe, a manufacturing and marketing operation in England, and its barbecue grill replacement parts and accessories business.