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Jewelry Company Closes Following Exec’s Death

Published

7 years ago

February 13, 2017

INSTORE Staff

About 70 employees lost their jobs.

Rapid City, SD-based jewelry manufacturer Coleman Co. has closed its doors, leaving dozens of employees out of work.

The closure follows the suicide of Dwight Sobczak Sr., who was CEO of the firm, the Rapid City Journal reports. Sobczak and his wife, Gloria, has purchased Coleman Co. 23 years ago.

Several of the manufacturer’s 70 employees reported being “left in limbo by the company’s sudden closure, a lack of information, and worries about paychecks they are owed and lingering questions about mismanaged retirement plans they had counted on for future income,” according to the Journal.

After Sobczak’s death in January, his family shut down operations.

The Journal reports that it called Coleman Co. but received no answer.

The company’s manufacturing and retail outlet facilities had recently been foreclosed on. First National Bank took back the property in November after placing the winning bid of about $1.25 million in a sheriff’s auction, according to the Journal.

Coleman was a manufacturer of the Black Hills style of gold jewelry, which dates to the 1870s and traditionally features grape leaves, grape clusters and grapevines in its designs.

Read more at the Rapid City Journal

Related Topics: Black Hills Coleman Co.gold jewelry

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