Garland Writing Instruments (asi/55870), a supplier with a Made-in-the-USA line and a 93-year history, expects to close by the end of October.

The planned shuttering of the Coventry, RI-based business is a result of economic challenges – namely a dearth of orders – caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Owner/President Rick Becker told Counselor.

“I have given this decision an enormous amount of thought over the past few months, but it has become increasingly apparent that the challenges we face, caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, are too difficult to overcome,” Becker said in an email to clients.

Still, all might not be lost yet.

Becker noted that he would be open to Garland being acquired. Since revealing that in the email to clients, word has started to spread through the industry and Garland has had some interesting inquiries about potential acquisitions, though nothing firm yet, Becker told Counselor.

“I want to see the brand live,” Becker said. “Ideally, the buyer would keep all the current employees.” Garland has 12 workers. Prior to the COVID-caused decline, the payroll stood at 18 employees, Becker said.

For Garland, as with many companies in the promotional products industry, 2020 began on a positive note. The company was poised to introduce new products and had improved its manufacturing to make it quicker and cleaner. Then COVID-19 swept in, prompting societal shutdown measures that resulted in Garland having to temporarily close for eight weeks.

When the doors reopened, Garland attempted to pivot to selling personal protective equipment, particularly face shields. While that helped deliver a temporary bump in orders, the PPE venture never quite soared, and of late, orders have strained to a trickle.

“It was hard to get supplies, but from May onward for a while we made a little go of it,” Becker told Counselor. “However, over the last two months orders have dropped off dramatically.”

Becker bought Garland in 2013, but the company’s history extends back to 1927. That’s when Louis Lanoie founded the firm originally known as Lew Manufacturing Co. Back then, the company manufactured small presses, which led to the design and development of the internal pen mechanism later used by many of the major pen and pencil manufacturers throughout the United States and Europe.

“They did a lot of work for major writing instrument brands like Cross, Parker and Sheaffer,” Becker said.

In the ’60s, Lew Manufacturing started making complete pens and pencils and changed its name to Garland Industries, which in 1965 became what Becker described as a charter member of ASI, Counselor’s parent company and the promo industry’s largest membership organization.

“Garland is proud of its many notable accomplishments and is one of the original designers and patent holders for the twist action pen mechanism,” the company notes in a history of the business. “Garland products have flown on both the Apollo moon missions and many of the Space Shuttle missions.”

Other achievements include that in 1969 Garland developed the Photo Top pen. The products have been – and continue to be – made in the United States.

“We’ve done a lot of work for the government, the military, municipalities and senators and governors,” Becker told Counselor. “Our products have been in the White House; we’ve done numerous orders for the president, vice president, the first lady and the second lady. Not to be political in any way but just as a historical note: Our pens were used by (Speaker of the House of Representatives) Nancy Pelosi to sign the articles of impeachment on President Trump.”

According to Becker, sympathy and support has poured in from the promo industry as news of Garland’s looming shutdown has made the rounds.

“This is sad news,” one distributor wrote in a social media forum in reaction to Garland’s shuttering. “They did an order for me many years ago. It was a pen and pencil set personalized with the company logo in the crown of the pen. The sets came out perfect and (there was) not one misspelled name out of those 500 sets.”

Becker said the support has been heartening during a very difficult time.

“2020,” he told Counselor, “has been a funky year.”