General DataComm – Part II of II

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This building at 1579 Straits Turnpike, now called Turnpike Office Park, once housed General DataComm headquarters. A variety of businesses now have offices there. (Middlebury Assessor GIS photo)

By DR. ROBERT L. RAFFORD

Following the 1984 breakup of AT&T, General DataComm (GDC) sales soared that year to $145.7 million from $60.7 million in 1982. The breakup meant the company was able to make more sales to companies like Ameritech and Bell Atlantic. GDC signed a $47 million revolving credit and term loan agreement with a consortium of banks, bringing its total available financing to more than $105 million.

Waterbury’s brass industries were virtually all gone by the end of the 1970s, and now the high-tech boom was at its peak. Real estate developers were buying up vacant industrial buildings, such as Middlebury’s Ralph Carpinella’s purchase and renovation of 835 South Main St. in Waterbury, and selling them at handsome profits to accommodate computer-related and other industries.

In 1984, GDC bought the former 360,000 square-foot Uniroyal Rubber plant in Naugatuck, consisting of 40 buildings on a 13-acre plot, which was finished in 1986. Charles P. Johnson, General DataComm chairperson, said at the time, “This was a steel and rubber town. We’d like to see Naugatuck converted to a high-technology town.” He predicted employment of 1,000 people within two years. The company now had its headquarters at 1579 Straits Turnpike in Middlebury, a modem assembly operation building on Captain Neville Drive in Waterbury and its manufacturing plant at the former Uniroyal plant.

A 1985 Hartford Courant report stated that “in 1980, General DataComm had no presence in the central Naugatuck Valley. Five years later, it has become the Waterbury area’s largest industry, employing 2,100 in the manufacture and sales of data communications products.”

GDC did well from 1985 through 1992. During the next two years it was still acquiring contracts to supply major companies with its products. At the end of 1994, Fortune Magazine listed General DataComm number three on its list for best stocks of 1994. The company’s stock had risen 153 percent, from $10.37½ to $26.25 a share.

In 1998, however, the first signs of real trouble surfaced when GDC fired 200 employees, or 12 percent of its workforce, lowering the number of employees to 1,500, to restructure its business. In November 2000, the company announced layoffs of 100 more workers and 200 more the following January. By August 2001, it was reported that the company had not shown a profit since 1993 and it was booted from the New York Stock Exchange. Shares were selling at 13 cents each.

The sharp downturn in the technology industry, especially the telecommunications sector, was now in full swing, and many other companies were experiencing the decline. GDC had been selling off portions of its company to stay afloat, and things did begin to get better, but not for long.

In October 2001, General DataComm filed for bankruptcy, citing a $23.9 million loss. Its founder and chief executive officer, Charles P. Johnson, died the next month, ending a 32-year career leading one of the most successful new businesses ever seen in Connecticut and beyond.

General DataComm emerged from Chapter 11 in 2003, repaid its debts and slimmed down to about 100 employees. The company moved everything to Naugatuck. The old 278,000-square-foot Timex building and the newer one at 1579 Straits Turnpike, encompassing 29 acres of land with 1,500 parking spaces, two helicopter landing pads and an aircraft hangar building, were sold in 2004 to Thylan Associates for $3.7 million, less than half of the asking price of $8.5 million.

Today, the company has its headquarters in Oxford and carries on the work begun by Charles P. Johnson.

You are urged to join the Middlebury Historical Society by going online at MiddleburyHistoricalSociety.org or visiting them on Facebook. Questions about membership can be sent to Bob at robraff@comcast.net.