Ownership roller-coaster leaves future uncertain for Scale-Tronix workers

When Dave Hale and co-owner Carolyn Lepler decided to sell Carol Stream-based Scale-Tronix, they wanted to make sure the new owners would not lay off their longtime employees.

But that's exactly what might be happening, after the buyer of Scale-Tronix was later acquired by another company. The workforce of 20 is facing an uncertain future as manufacturing of the heavy-duty specialty weight scales is outsourced to Marcres Metalwerks in Mount Prospect. It's not known whether any of the employees will be hired by Marcres.

"We had two other buyers who told us they would move the operation after they bought it, and that was a deal breaker for me," said Hale. "I didn't want to see these employees lose their jobs."

Scale-Tronix, which started in Hale's Wheaton garage, became an iconic maker of weight scales for hospitals and nursing homes worldwide. It made scales throughout the years for specialized needs of patients including victims of Chernobyl, burn victims, bedridden patients, babies, a 1,000-pound person and even a baby elephant.

But a couple of years ago, Hale and Lepler were in their 70s and considering a sale of the company. They wanted to retire but ensure a future for their employees. They agreed to sell to Welch Allyn, a Skaneateles Falls, New York-based maker of physical exam equipment, in May 2015.

They didn't know at the time that Welch Allyn was about to be acquired in three months by Batesville, Indiana-based Hill-Rom, a global medical technology company. That's when the situation began to change for employees, and Hale couldn't do anything about it.

Regardless of the promises of Welch Allyn, Hill-Rom has signed a deal to outsource the manufacturing of the scales to Marcres Metalwerks. Scale-Tronix is slated to close in November. The move was a shock to the workforce and to Hale, who was the chief engineer on many of the scales that helped patients around the globe.

For example, the company donated two scales used for the radiation victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. Those scales used a hydraulic mechanism that would lift bedridden patients out of bed, weigh them and then place them back in bed. Other problems were solved with scales designed to weigh premature babies, patients in wheelchairs and those who weigh about 1,000 pounds.

A call to Marcres was not immediately returned. But Hill-Rom spokesman Howard N. Karesh said Hill-Rom does not own Marcres, so it could not predict how many current employees of Scale-Tronix would be hired by Marcres to do the work.

"But we do anticipate that, in general, the same number of employees working on Scale-Tronix today will be needed," said Karesh.

Hale now is worried about his former employees.

"This has been very disheartening," said Hale. "I didn't want to sell to a public company."

In the 1970s, Hale had just left the Chicago office of Ohio-based Toledo Scale Co., which had been acquired. There was a lot of demand for automatic weighing systems, so Hale started his own company and engineered the devices with his ideas. He partnered with Lepler, a colleague who was based in White Plains, New York. They prided themselves on developing simple solutions that overcame complex problems faced by patients in hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities.

Lepler and Hale kept separate offices, she in New York and Hale in Wheaton. He later moved to larger facilities in Lombard, then to Carol Stream. He supervised 21 workers and Lepler had 12 workers. They spoke to each other perhaps once a month and maybe saw each other once every five years, he said.

"We had a very unusual company leadership," Hale said. "We were just too busy to see each other. We'd see each other at a convention or something."

Throughout the years in Carol Stream, Scale-Tronix was a steady, quiet neighbor.

Don Bastian, Carol Stream's community development director, said he hasn't heard much about the company over the years and was unaware Scale-Tronix plans to leave the village.

"We have a very low vacancy rate for our industrial area. It's under 4 percent. So a building like theirs may not remain vacant long," Basian said.

After 41 years, Hale finds it sad to say goodbye to an era where he could take a personal interest in helping people with special needs with a quality device.

"We had one of the highest priced scales, but they were the best and they lasted a long time," Hale said. "Some that were built back in the 1970s are still being used today in some hospitals."