Debt-Ridden Mosler Shuts Sites in U.S.

Mosler Inc., which began in 1867 as a safe manufacturer and grew to become a major producer of electronic security systems, abruptly sent employees home Friday and said it is immediately closing its U.S. operations.

Mosler will be liquidated at the urging of lenders that said they could not continue to support the debt-ridden company, said Al Rabasca, the company’s senior vice president of human resources.

The shutdown eliminates the jobs of Mosler’s 1,800 employees nationwide, including about 350 in Hamilton, Rabasca said. For now, the company’s operations in Canada and Mexico continue to function.

Mosler’s customers included the General Services Administration and other government agencies, banks and airlines.

Debts that had been increasing for years prompted lenders in April to tell management to find a buyer for the company, Rabasca said. Mosler management thought it had a buyer twice, but the deals fell apart and the decision was made Thursday to shut down the U.S. operations, Rabasca said.

The company has operated since 1867, when Austrian immigrant Gustav Mosler founded the Mosler-Bahmann Safe Co. in Cincinnati. By 1891, the company had outgrown its Cincinnati factory and moved north to Hamilton.

In recent decades, the company’s business has expanded into the manufacturing, sale and service of electronic security systems.