Several parties are interested in buying North Canton-based Hoover Co., but the union that represents about 800 company workers is not among them.
Jim Repace, president of Local 1985 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Monday that the union did not bid for Hoover.
The union, though, may pursue an alliance with one of the bidders in hopes of creating an employee-owned company, Repace said.
“We may be going in a different direction, but the ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) is not off the table,” Repace said.
Hoover’s owner, Whirlpool Corp., announced in May that it wants to sell the maker of vacuum cleaners and floor-care products and three other units that it acquired when Whirlpool purchased Maytag Corp.
Hoover’s performance had slipped under Maytag, which blamed high labor costs and weak vacuum cleaner sales for some of Maytag’s poor earnings reports.
Whirlpool declined to comment on the bidding process.
“We continue to seek a buyer,” Whirlpool spokeswoman Jody Lau said from company headquarters in Benton Harbor, Mich. Whirlpool has “nothing new to report” on the situation, she said.
Several parties submitted bids for Hoover to investment banker Lazard Freres & Co., Repace said.
Lazard executive Michael Wilkerson did not return a phone call seeking comment.
From Ohio.com