"After 116 years in Berkeley, Walter Mork Company is closing its doors. The custom metal fabrication shop has survived two world wars, the Great Depression, and countless ups and downs in the economy. Twenty U.S. presidents have been elected since Walter Mork, a Finnish immigrant, opened the shop in West Berkeley in 1909. And four generations of the Mork family have worked there."
"But it's been hard for Walter Mork Company, and other old-school operations like it, to compete in the current age of metal fabrication, which is largely done with the aid of computers, the company's leaders say. We're basically state of the art, circa 1975, said Berkeley Choate, the company's vice president and stepson of owner Fred Mork. For years, the company was able to offset our technological deficiency with the talent of our people, said Choate."
"Fred Mork, grandson of founder Walter Mork, has been putting his own money into the business to keep it afloat, borrowing money from his retirement account and taking out various bank loans. The pandemic was tough. We're not profitable, Fred Mork said. And I don't see it changing. While a closing date has not yet been set, the plan is to close its Sixth Street shop sometime between December and February."
Walter Mork Company has operated in West Berkeley since 1909, surviving two world wars, the Great Depression, and four generations of family ownership. The custom metal fabrication shop faces declining work because modern fabrication increasingly relies on computer-assisted processes that reproduce specialized layout techniques. Skilled employees who offset technological gaps have retired, reducing the shop's competitive edge. Owner Fred Mork has injected personal funds, borrowed from retirement, and taken bank loans while the business remained unprofitable, with pandemic impacts exacerbating losses. A Sixth Street shop closure is planned between December and February, reflecting a larger decline of industrial manufacturing in West Berkeley.
Read at www.berkeleyside.org
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