Sale of Property

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

Sale Of Property

Sale of Property

16. Sale of Property

In December 2008, the Company sold property it owned in Bridgeport, Connecticut to B&E Juices, Inc. for $2.5 million, of which $2.0 million was secured by a mortgage on the property. The property consists of approximately four acres of land and 48,000 sq. feet of warehouse space. The property was the site of the Company’s original scissor factory which opened in 1887 and was closed in 1996.

Under the terms of the sale agreement, and as required by the Connecticut Transfer Act, the Company is required to remediate any environmental contamination on the property. During 2008, the Company hired an independent environmental consulting firm to conduct environmental studies in order to identify the extent of the environmental contamination on the property and to develop a remediation plan. As a result of those studies and the estimates prepared by the independent environmental consulting firm, the Company recorded an undiscounted liability of approximately $1.8 million related to the remediation of the property. This accrual included the costs of required investigation, remedial activities, and post-remediation operating and maintenance.

Remediation work on the project began in the third quarter of 2009 and was completed during the third quarter of 2012. In addition to the completed remediation work, the Company, with the assistance of its independent environmental consulting firm, must continue to monitor contaminant levels on the property to ensure they comply with applicable governmental standards. The Company is in the process of winding down its monitoring activities at the site and is waiting for final approval from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. At December 31, 2014, the Company had approximately $6,000 remaining in its accrual related to the environmental remediation, all of which was classified as a current liability at that date.

On April 7, 2014, the Company sold its Fremont, NC distribution facility for $850,000 in cash. The facility originally served as a manufacturing site for the Company’s scissors and rulers. The Company hired an independent environmental consulting firm to conduct environmental studies in order to identify the extent of the environmental contamination on the property and to develop a remediation plan. As a result of those studies and the estimates prepared by the independent environmental consulting firm, and in conjunction with the sale of the property, the Company recorded a liability of $300,000 in the second quarter of 2014, related to the remediation of the property. The accrual includes the total estimated costs of remedial activities and post-remediation operating and maintenance costs.

Remediation work on the Fremont project began in the third quarter of 2014 and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015. In addition to the remediation work, the Company, with the assistance of its independent environmental consulting firm, must continue to monitor contaminant levels on the property to ensure they comply with set governmental standards. The Company expects that the monitoring period will last a period of five years after the completion of the remediation and be complete by the end of 2020.

The gain on the sale of the Fremont property is calculated as follows:

(in thousands)

Sales Price		$	850
Less:
Transaction costs			75
Land			140
Building and Equipment (gross book value)	1,715
Building and Equipment - accum. Depreciation	1,580
Building and Equipment (net book value)			135
Environmental Remediation Liability			300
Gain on Sale		$	200

The change in the accrual for environmental remediation for the twelve months ended December 31, 2014 follows (in thousands):

	Balance at December 31, 2013		Estimated Costs		Payments			Balance at December 31, 2014
Fremont, NC		—	$	300	$	(40	)	$	260
Bridgeport, CT	$	39		—	$	(33	)	$	6
Total	$	39	$	300	$	(57	)	$	266