Oneida Ltd. moving warehouse operations to Savannah

<p>Oneida Ltd. is closing its central New York warehouse and moving the operations to Savannah, Ga., officials announced Wednesday.</p><p>The dinnerware company said its administrative and operating headquarters _ and the 200 people who work there _ will remain in Oneida.</p><p>The company has called central New York home for more than a century.</p><p>Oneida Ltd. plans to offer the 150 warehouse employees the opportunity to relocate to Georgia, where it's building a 500,000-square-foot facility. The move to a major port is expected to reduce the company's shipping costs.</p><p>The move was scheduled to start next year.</p><p>Oneida Ltd. also plans to expand its presence in New York City to serve as its principal worldwide sales and marketing center.</p><p>In 1999, Oneida Ltd. employed 2,400 people at its 205,000-square-foot factory, warehouse and headquarters in central New York. The company has since closed that factory and plans to sell the property.</p><p>Oneida Ltd. now employs 900 people worldwide.</p><p>The company filed a plan in March to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after accruing $322 million in debt.</p><p>The world's largest maker of stainless steel flatware signed a letter of intent earlier this month to be acquired by two of its shareholders for at least $222.5 million in a plan to bring the company out of a recently declared bankruptcy.</p><p>Hedge funds D.E. Shaw Laminar Portfolios LLC and Xerion Capital Partners LLC will pay at least $222.5 million, or enough to pay the 126-year-old company's secured bank claims. They also will assume all other general unsecured claims, according to Oneida Ltd.</p><p>The March filing came a year after the company closed its factories to concentrate on distributing and marketing imported flatware.</p><p>The bankruptcy judge has not yet ruled on the company's reorganization plan.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdbe28)</p>