Unicast is a Foundry in Boyertown Pa. (founded 1894) with many connections to the hearth industry. They cast parts for Upland, Vermont Castings, Quaker Stove, Old Mill, Crane, Cawley-Lemay, Woodstock Soapstone and many others in the business. This resulted in a growth spurt for the foundry in the late 70's and early 80's, a time when Unicast was run by Karl Harner.
In fact, business got too big and Unicast found itself in bad shape when the stove boom of 1979-1981 cooled. A number of their top clients went bankrupt and left Unicast with large debts and also piles of castings with no buyer. As a result, the foundry was sold to Don Stoughton and headed by Lou Monaco. Lou ruled Unicast with an iron hand and made a number of enemies in the stove business as he refused to return patterns to their owners and forced the new owners of certain stove companies to buy castings at higher prices in order to have the "rights" to their patterns back. This proved very unpopular and Lou managed to lose the business of clients like Woodstock Soapstone, Upland and others.
The quality of Unicast castings were good - but the tough measures taken to return the foundry to profitability are still hanging over the head of Unicast.
Unicast maintains a web site at:
http://www.unicastco.com/
They currently claim that they have certain stove parts - and knowing their history of refusing to return patterns, this is probably the case.
In fact, business got too big and Unicast found itself in bad shape when the stove boom of 1979-1981 cooled. A number of their top clients went bankrupt and left Unicast with large debts and also piles of castings with no buyer. As a result, the foundry was sold to Don Stoughton and headed by Lou Monaco. Lou ruled Unicast with an iron hand and made a number of enemies in the stove business as he refused to return patterns to their owners and forced the new owners of certain stove companies to buy castings at higher prices in order to have the "rights" to their patterns back. This proved very unpopular and Lou managed to lose the business of clients like Woodstock Soapstone, Upland and others.
The quality of Unicast castings were good - but the tough measures taken to return the foundry to profitability are still hanging over the head of Unicast.
Unicast maintains a web site at:
http://www.unicastco.com/
They currently claim that they have certain stove parts - and knowing their history of refusing to return patterns, this is probably the case.