This story by Susan Smallheer was published Oct. 29 by the Brattleboro Reformer.
[P]UTNEY — Basketville will be closing its Putney retail store before the new year, focusing its energies on its wholesale business.
In a press release, the company said five people would lose their jobs by closing the retail store, its last retail operation.
“The company has evolved into a wholesale business serving some of America’s largest retailers,” the Basketville release stated.
Greg Wilson, the Basketville chief executive officer, couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.
At the same time, Wilson said the Putney Mountain Winery would remain in the Basketville building, and there would be space on the building’s main floor available for lease.
Basketville will continue to employ 25 people at its Putney headquarters, and it also employs 25 people at the company’s Qingdao, China, office.
Wilson is the third generation of his family to be involved with the basket business.
Greg Wilson’s father, Frank G. Wilson, learned the basket business from his father, Cassius Wilson, who owned the Sidney Gage & Company of North Westminster. The Gage company was founded in 1842 and claimed to be one of “the largest manufacturers of hand-made baskets in the United States.”
The company was known for its sturdy oak and ash baskets, which were urged for both agricultural and industrial use, as well as domestic uses such as marketing and laundry.
Greg Wilson’s father bought the West River Basket Company in 1941 and merged it with the Sidney Gage & Company to form Basketvillage.
According to a company history, the first Basketville retail store opened around 1956, directly across the street from the Putney factory.
The company eventually had 12 Basketville outlets on the East Coast, from Florida to Maine.
Additional factories were established in Brattleboro, as well as Milo, Maine, and Northborough, Massachusetts. The company started importing baskets from around the world, with suppliers in Hong Kong, Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, and Poland.
With the rising costs of manufacturing in the United States, Basketville established a joint venture in China, where New England-style baskets were made until 2007. The Putney factory had closed in 1996.
The company forced the closing of Basketville retail stores in 2006 and 2007, except for the flagship Putney store.
Today, Basketville specializes in designing and sourcing customized decorative storage and home organization products for the mass market, the release stated.
“The retail store no longer fits within the focus of the company’s main business,” the press release stated.
Charles Dodge, the chief executive of the Putney-based apple and fruit winery, said his company was considering an expansion, but that any change in the company’s footprint would require permission from the federal government, which regulates the making of beer, wine and spirits.
“We will continue in our space as usual, and we’ll be there Jan. 1,” he said. “Our business is always developing.”
Putney Mountain Winery has been located in the Basketville building since 2008, after being founded in Putney in 1998 by the Dodges. The winery was recently in the news when its Northern Spy sparkling wine was used to christen the USS Vermont.
