By Dominik Lobkowicz
The Science Source in Waldoboro was recently sold to Flordia-based Science First. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
The Science Source in Waldoboro was sold Aug. 4 to a Florida company, but the new owner has declined to shed light on her plans for the manufacturing plant, the employees, or the company as a whole.
The Science Source produces a variety of educational equipment and materials relating to physics and physical sciences, according to its website.
Kate Taylor, business development director for The Science Source, confirmed the sale of the company from Windham-based Anania & Associates Investment Company to Science First, another manufacturer and supplier of educational science equipment in Yulee, Fla.
Nancy Bell, owner of Science First, declined to answer questions or make a statement about the sale and the future of The Science Source when reached Aug. 12, saying she may be ready to comment in about two weeks.
The sale makes Bell the second owner of the Waldoboro company since longtime owner Rudy Graf sold it to Anania & Associates in December 2011.
Graf purchased Bond Manufacturing in Coopers Mills in 1986 and soon thereafter moved the company to Waldoboro and changed its name to The Science Source, building it up over 25 years through acquisitions and developing new products, according to The Lincoln County News archives.
Graf and Anania had an agreement in the sale that The Science Source would stay in Waldoboro and all the positions at the time – about 30 – would be maintained, according to The Lincoln County News archives.
“I was very intent on keeping the company in Maine so the fine group of workers we cultivated over the years would be able to stay gainfully employed in their local area,” Graf said in a 2011 press release from Anania & Associates.
Whether a similar agreement was a condition of the recent sale is not yet known.
At the time of The Science Source’s first sale, Peter Anania, chairman and founder of Anania & Associates, said his company planned to grow the company and then make it available for sale, hoping either The Science Source’s management team or another local company would purchase it.
“There [are] no guarantees in business,” Anania said at the time. “We’d like to see it stay in local control.”
“Of the businesses we’ve owned, we had one in 1996 move out of state after being purchased by a larger company. All the rest have stayed in the state,” he said.
Calls to Anania & Associates about the recent sale to Science First were not returned by press time.
