I sure miss Lebaron Bonney. I am trying to buy a headliner for a '34 Ford 5 window. I have been waiting for 3 days to find out if Cartouche even offers it as a stand alone piece. If LeBaron Bonney were still around, I would be installing the headliner today. Cartouche is lame as far as I am concerned. I can't even talk to anybody there directly.
Now you can do it right, Pay someone with lots of tattoos 20k for a seat and headliner. Maybe the Count can can help.
My hope is that someone will buy the various assets patterns/stock if possible and begin marketing the products again. The risk would be spread out between a number of suppliers instead of one. I have to believe there is a profitable market for most of their wide range of offerings.
I'm sure part of the reason they went out of business is that there was not enough call for thier products . The market was supported by older folks and we're dying off !
Hi. I have another take on them. I needed just the windlace and hid-em strip for my 46 Chevy coupe and they had it in the parts list in the colors I wanted as stand alone items. But would not sell it to me unless I purchased a complete headliner kit. Had practically new headliner in the coupe and did not need that. Personally I will not miss them. Jimmie
They did the same to me. They had the 56 Ford Peacock blue broadcloth but would not sell by the yard. Bought it from SMS.
I could be wrong, but things started to unravel when they got bought out and the new owners took it to the crapper.
It wasn't the company that sold, it was the building that they were in that sold. https://en.businesstimes.cn/article...ey-company-files-for-chapter-7-bankruptcy.htm Probably a big increase in rent is one of the things that pushed the bankruptcy along with other business costs like labor and cost of supplies. Still you never know why a successful business all he sudden goes under. There are too many reasons to count. I've seen a business go broke simply because the owner let his wife write personal checks on the business account rather than give here a household budget that she had to stick to. I watched another long time successful business go under because the owner's grand kids put far too much inventory on the lot (farm equipment) at a time money got tight for farmers. That and their best salesman left in the changeover. Any of us who are older can point out successful businesses that went under for a lot of different reasons. The simple refusal to sell items that could easily be sold separate and were listed separate is one issue. Meaning they may have turned down quite a bit of business Looking for the full pie rather than selling it by the slice.
One of my more favorite sayings about why business's fail " they try to make thier last dollar on thier next sale ."......
Sorry to say this but LB was in business a long time and didn't own a building.....that was stupid especially after 1959 from what was said in the article...
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