In a letter posted under the News section of its website, and sent to customers last week, Uroboros founder and president Eric Lovell announced plans to close his nearly 44-year-old glass production facility in Portland, Oregon. Though Lovell stated that he hopes to sell the business to allow for continued employment and product supply, he made it clear that the company in its current incarnation will "discontinue operations in early 2017." He cited the high costs of meeting new city and state regulations, as well as the gentrification of the Portland area where Uroboros operates, and his own advancing age. Though the company has been under intense scruitiny from environmental regulators for its use of cadmium and arsenic as well as other chemicals, like its Portland neighbor Bullseye Glass, Lovell says: "It is not any one of these factors, but a combination of all of them," that led to the decision to close.
Uroboros plans to continue to produce glass sheets in the reduced range of colors through late-November. Uroboros is also working with the new owners of the recently-purchased Spectrum Glass (the Oceanside Glasstile company based in Carlsbad, California purchased Spectrum in late September 2016) to supply many of their compatible System 96 colors until they go into production at the new facility next year.
In the short term, Uroboros has phased out credit purchases, and will only ship out prepaid orders. In addition, rationing has been suspended, and any customer may now purchase freely from available inventory.
For more information: www.uroboros.com