Sale of Property

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

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.

Under the terms of the sale agreement, and as required by the Connecticut Transfer Act, the Company was required to remediate any environmental contamination on the property. As a result of 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.

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, was required to monitor contaminant levels on the property to ensure they comply with applicable governmental standards. During the first quarter of 2015, the Company received notice from the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection that it had accepted and approved the Company’s filing of its Form III Verification Report. As a result, the Company’s remediation and monitoring obligations have been satisfied.

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 was completed in 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 from 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, which is included in other accrued liabilities on the accompanying consolidated balance sheets, for the twelve months ended December 31, 2015 follows (in thousands):

	Balance at December 31, 2014			Payments			Balance at December 31, 2015
Fremont, NC	$	260	$	(180	)	$	80
Bridgeport, CT	$	6	$	(6	)	$	—
Total	$	266	$	(186	)	$	80