Farmers’ Almanac maker to lay off 75 as it moves printing from Lewiston [Maine]

The Bangor Daily News ^ | January 22, 2013 | Whit Richardson

[2ndDivisionVet]

LEWISTON, Maine — Geiger Brothers, the producer of the Farmers’ Almanac as well as pocket diaries and calendars, is divesting itself of its printing and manufacturing business after 135 years.

The company’s decision, one influenced by changes in peoples’ behavior wrought by technology, will lead to 75 people losing their jobs, Peter Geiger, the company’s executive vice president and editor of the Farmers’ Almanac, told the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday evening.

Geiger said the company, which was founded in 1878 and moved to Lewiston in 1955, told its employees of the decision on Tuesday.

The company, which is also a distributor of promotional products, currently has about 400 employees, the majority in Lewiston, Geiger said.

While the distribution of promotional products is the company’s core business and has been on the rise, Geiger said the company’s manufacturing business has lost “substantial” amounts of money over the past several years. He said demand for Geiger’s pocket diaries and calendars has decreased as people increasingly rely on smartphones and other technologies...

[GeronL]

bump

Poor Richard!!

[GeronL]

Lewiston isn’t a big city is it? Those 75 jobs... no make it 400 locally since they are moving the rest out too... is going to hurt.

[re_nortex]

The company will continue to publish the Farmers’ Almanac, though it will no longer be printed and bound in Lewiston, he said. The 2014 edition of the almanac won’t be produced until the fall, so the company hasn’t worked out where it will printed in the future, he [Pete Geiger] said.

It's certain that the printing will be done in a liberty-loving Right to Work state:

Maine needs to get with the program and toss out the modern-day slavery of unionism. It's a winning formula for both workers and owners.

[Morris70]

They’re the Farmers Almanac!
How come they didn’t see that coming?

[dragnet2]

Maine needs to get with the program and toss out the modern-day slavery of unionism.

There are now more unionized government employees than those in private sector America.

It's even more insidious since you're paying 100% of the unionized government workers pay.

[raccoonradio]

That’s one Farmer’s Almanac, not to be confused with the Old Farmers Almanac from the folks at Yankee Magazine, still published in Dublin NH I believe.

[urtax$@work]

get the OFA yearly and enjoy all the info in it.

i carefully tracked our regional weather since October
and dang if the OFA tracked pretty close to actual results.

the cycles of good/bad weather & coldest period predictions
were usually within a weeks time accurate !!