Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 7, 1993 TAG: 9310070088
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA LENGTH: Medium
The husband-and-wife team, who read about the three-day Philadelphia auction in a London trade publication, made out like bandits.
They bought a 1976 Carle Montanari model B-1300 Hydrostatic five-roll refiner - for only $52,500. It would have cost them anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 new.
The auction of Whitman's Chocolate candy-making equipment and other items attracted more than 200 participants from as far away as Australia, The Philippines, Chile and Canada. All sought to sink their teeth into some sweet bargains.
They were bidding on about 900 items - chocolate mixers, box folders, weigh stations for powdered milk - all left behind when Whitman's Chocolates closed its Philadelphia factory in May, idling about 700 workers.
After operating in Philadelphia for more than 150 years, Whitman's was bought by Russell Stover Inc. Chocolate production is to move to a new Abilene, Kan., facility in April 1995, said a Russell Stover spokesperson from headquarters in Kansas City, Mo.
Meanwhile, the trademark Whitman's Sampler and other candies are being produced at Russell Stover plants in Colorado, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
The auction is expected to bring in $4 million to $5 million for Russell Stover, said Betty Chan, comptroller for Rabin Bros., the San Francisco auction house in charge.
Everything from plastic aprons to the chairs seating bidders and auctioneer officials was on the selling block. Video monitors showed tapes of various pieces of equipment.
Jack Greenberg, president of Pet Products, a Yonkers, N.Y., company with 120 employees, hoped to bid for one of three high-shrink film packaging machines that Whitman's used to wrap chocolate boxes at a fast rate.
Greenberg wanted it to wrap his rawhide dog bones.
by CNB