particular story or no nothing special about it, i think it would be next or near impossible, but since we had a unique situation, we were the only ones in the united states that were making flatware, we had a special story to tell. a story to tell consumers and a story to tell themselves. while bankruptcy was nothing they would have wished for, both matt and greg feel they ve come out stronger on the other side. we would rather be strong and profitable than big and clumsy. you don t learn things through successes, you learn when you fail, and we failed a lot over the past seven, eight, nine years, but you dust yourself off and you just keep going. it is fall and that means it s time to put away the rose and break out the cider. over the last few years cider sales have been booming. we met the owners of two small companies who are competing with big brands and they ve decided
the plan was to sell the land and the buildings and become a tenant. sell any asset that we didn t need to become liberty tabletop and then the third part was to find someone to invest in us. it was an incredibly emotional time. on the one hand, they were entrepreneurs creating something new. on the other hand, they felt like they had failed. i would always go to the store with my wife and look at the flatware. during the bankruptcy i avoided the flatware departments because i felt so i just felt bad. they had to compartmentalize and look on the future. we were very good at survival. looking back i can t believe we survived. i m not going to say there weren t days both matt and i looked at each other and said, you know, is today the last day? somehow we managed to make it through it. as excess equipment and steel was sold for cash, liberty came to life. unlike during the oneida days,
story or no nothing special about it, i think it would be next to near impossible. but since we had a unique situation, we were the only ones in the united states that were making flatware, we had a special story to tell. a story to tell consumers and a story to tell themselves. while bankruptcy was nothing they would have wished for, both matt and greg feel they have come out stronger on the other side. we would rather be small and profitable than big and clumsy. you don t learn things through successes. you learn when you fail. and we failed a lot over the past seven, eight, nine years, but you dust yourself off and keep going. it is fall, and that means it s time to put away the rose and break out the cider. over the last few years, cider sales have been booming. we met the owners of two small companies who are competing with big brands. and they have discovered that their size is actually an asset.
so that forced our hand. once the bulk of their business was gone, bankruptcy became the only option. but these two refused to just walk away. matt and greg started hatching a plan b. before we turned out the light, we had several coils of steel, many, lying around the factory, and instead of letting them sit there, we decided to turn it into flatware. that s the inventory we started with, about $23,000 worth of flatware, as i recall. that $23,000 worth of flatware marked the beginning of liberty tabletop, but going through bankruptcy while starting a new brand was incredibly complicated. we actually created liberty tabletop and our wives owned it. the bankruptcy court knew about it. we told them this is how we re going to survive, so let us do this. working with creditors who backed their plans, greg and matt mapped out their exit from sheryl manufacturer s bankruptcy by launching their new consumer line in three steps. the plan was to sell the land
and the buildings and become a tenant. sell any asset that we didn t need to become liberty tabletop, and then the third part was to find someone to invest in us. it was an incredibly emotional time. on the one hand, they were entrepreneurs creating something new. on the other hand, they felt like they had failed. i would always go to the store with my wife and i would look at the flatware. during the bankruptcy, i avoided the flatware departments because i just felt bad. they had to compartmentalize and focus on the future. we were very good at survival. i don t know, looking back, i can t believe that we survived. i m not going to say there weren t days that both matt and i looked at each other and said, you know, is today the last day? but somehow, we managed to make it through it. as excess equipment and steel was sold for cash to deal with the bankruptcy, liberty came to life. unlike during the oneida days, now, the factory was only open