Future of Hickey Freeman in doubt
A relatively obscure set of federal tax breaks for wool imports seemingly on the chopping block could spell the end of Rochester high-end men’s clothier Hickey Freeman.
The Wool Trust Fund program “is not a ‘nice to have program’; this is absolutely essential,” said Homi Patel, former CEO of what until last year was Hickey Freeman’s parent company. “The future of the Rochester plant could be in jeopardy.”
The Wool Trust Fund, which started in 2000, provides tariff relief for domestic makers of wool clothing and fabric on the wool they import. According to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer’s office, the federal Office of Management and Budget is considering elimination of the program from the federal budget.
In a letter to the OMB sent Wednesday, Schumer, D-N.Y., said doing away with the fund, which also provides economic development money to domestic wool producers, “would seriously threaten the continued economic viability … of Hickey Freeman and the few other remaining U.S. manufacturers of tailored wool clothing.”
Hickey Freeman employs close to 400 in Rochester, including roughly 350 hourly production workers.
Patel — who was head of Chicago-based Hartmarx Corp. and now is an adviser to London-based private investment firm Emerisque Brands, which bought out bankrupt Hartmarx in 2009 — declined to give specific dollar figures about the Wool Trust Fund’s financial impact on the company, but said it was “substantial.”
The United States “already is non-competitive with countries with low wages,” Patel said. “But this would make us non-competitive even with Canada.”
