Stephanie Dawn line coming to an end

VW independent news

The Stephanie Dawn line of handbags, made in Van Wert since 2008, is coming to an end, but it’s not bad news for employees.

Workers were updated on Wednesday and parent company Kam Manufacturing issued a press release explaining the decision.

“KAM Manufacturing is approaching 40 years in business and with any business that has been around for 40 years, changes are inevitable and this change we are about to announce is bittersweet,” the release said. “Stephanie Dawn accounts for about three percent of our total production volume, the other 97 percent is made up from our contract cut sew business which services many different commercial/government customers. It is no longer efficient or economically viable for KAM Manufacturing to continue to produce the Stephanie Dawn Handbag line, we have outgrown the brand.”

An announcement such as that usually means layoffs or other reductions, but company officials said that’s not the case here.

“The decision to end the production of the Stephanie Dawn brand will not cause us to reduce hours or lay employees off, just the opposite,” the release stated. “We are hiring and are continuing to add additional hours to our production system. The demand for our contract cut and sew services are very high and we have positioned ourselves to meet those demands.”

Company officials also noted that without Stephanie Dawn we would not have been able to answer the call at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to make over 150,000 isolation gowns and 500,000 masks.

The press release also said the company will announce an online closeout sale in the near future.