P.W. Minor, Batavia, New York, closed its operations and laid off its staff on October 5. The orthopedic shoe manufacturer had been in business since 1867. According to the Democrat & Chronical newspaper, P.W. Minor filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice with the New York Department of Labor in September stating that 42-82 employees could be affected by a possible plant closing or layoff. The company then announced that it would lay off 45 employees on September 28 as part of a restructuring, which included ending its Goodyear Welt line of shoes, but said it would remain open.
P.W. Minor was purchased in 2014 by Pete Zeliff and Andrew Young, operating under the name Batavia Shoes. The company continued to do business as P.W. Minor with the owners stating their intention to focus operations on diabetic and comfort footwear, and in 2014 was awarded about $450,000 by the state of New York to keep its doors open. In 2015, the company said it was expanding and would bring 100 jobs back to the Batavia plant that had previously been outsourced to China in exchange for $1.75 million in state tax credits. At that time, the company employed 50 workers.
The company was purchased by investment firm Tidewater + Associates in February.
