Apparently it’s now official. And not unexpected. With remaining employees having received 60-90 day termination notices, it looks like the 35-year old Roscor Corp. is closing its Mt. Prospect doors forever.
According to reliable sources, the audio visual systems company last week filed for bankruptcy, as opposed to Chapter 11 reorganization, which would have allowed it to continue in business.
Recently, Roscor’s engineering department, which president Paul Roston stated would remain open for business, was closed. Its roughly 30 employees were either laid off after the remaining projects were completed or left voluntarily to join other firms.
Roscor fired 100 of its 130 staffers last fall
In a move on October 28 that rocked the local AV industry, Roscor abruptly shuttered its rental department and fired 100 of its 130 employees throughout its offices in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Indonesia.
At that time, Roston, whose brother, Mitch Roston was in charge of operations, cited the relentless squeeze on profit margins by large national companies as a major factor in their downsizing.
At the time of the mass firing, Roston said the company would be restructured as an engineering and professional services firm, based on a new business model they were going to create – but never happened.
Some former employees said the basic problems arose from management not acting quickly enough to adapt to the technology changes of new products and systems. Mitch Roston told the Reel at the time that their closing “might have been a reflection of the economy and ways things are done today.”
There is, however, a positive side to this misfortune, a former Roscor staffer points out. “I see the industry transitioning and absorbing the collective Roscor expertise, benefitting from it and moving on. It is the end of a chapter in the AV integration business – and also the start of a new one for many ex-Roscor employees.”
Competitors were quick to snap up former employees
Fortunately, most all of the rental sales staff and other skilled technicians found new job opportunities almost immediately after the news broke late last October.
Competitive companies throughout the Midwest were quick to extend job offers through ReelChicago. Minneapolis-based AVI Systems absorbed 32 former staffers to date, for their offices in Bensenville and throughout the Midwest. A competitor of Roscor’s stadium installation business opened a new Chicago office last month and is now manned by mostly all former Roscor people.
A former Roscor sales executive, who lost his job after more than 30 years, is not bitter towards the company. He says, “Paul and Mitch provided a chance to learn technology and business from the ground up. We all learned together, made mistakes together and prospered together. It was a lot of hard work but also a lot of fun. And I think we helped make the AV industry in the Midwest what it was.”
Roscor was the second large, old-line AV equipment company to close after many decades in business. In 2005, Itasca-based Swiderski Electronics, run by a second generation of the Swiderski family, also abruptly closed after 57 years in business.
