Comeau discusses fall of Dessin Fournir

By CANDACE RACHEL
Plainville Times Editor

PLAINVILLE — Following the June 27 auction of the Plainville Livestock Commission real estate and effects, another Plainville business is scheduled to go under the auction block Aug. 1.

The other shoe has dropped for Chuck Comeau and Dessin Fournir Cos. The once madly successful DFC Holdings, which includes several businesses in Plainville and Hays, despite filing for restructuring bankruptcy, is to be sold by sheriff’s auction.

Comeau commented that several things added up to the demise of the company, that virtually blindsided the company’s plan.

“Prior to 2008, there was nothing we could do wrong,” Comeau said. “It was all we could do to stay in front of it.”

The recession of 2008 started knocking the dominoes down, and according to Comeau, things went from bad to worse.
“Most businesses were developed to grow,” he said. “The hardest thing to do is to downsize. After 2008, in a nine-month period, we lost 40 percent of our business, and it’s been a fight ever since the recession happened. We had an infrastructure here and around the country to support growth, not to get smaller.”

He added leased show rooms in major cities across the country couldn’t be put on hold.

Comeau had to begin scaling down staff in 2016, and again in 2017.

“We tried to continue to grow, but the beginning of 2015 and into 2016, there was a huge change I did not expect. Into 2017, I lost all of my partners in one year.”

In 2017-2018, partner Chris Mraz suffered a disabling stroke; Comeau’s second partner, Len Larson developed severe dementia, and a financial partner died in August.

“It was all over. It was like all the pieces were thrown up in the air, and I had to catch them,” he said.

Not one to look for sympathy, Comeau said it all was on him, not anyone else’s problem, but he began to wonder what else could go wrong.

“All you’re doing [then] is to try to figure out how to stay afloat, and you need to stop and reorganize,” he said. “We had to furlough everybody in April — and we thought it would be a short one, but it wasn’t.”

Comeau said steps to stop expenses were taken, and showrooms in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco were closed.

Had the restructuring been given, Comeau and his staff decided on different ways of selling the company’s products. His customers — high-end designers — now do the bulk of their shopping online.

“It’s hard to go from feeling positive to feeling negative,” Comeau said, “and losing key people.”

Comeau’s health has also been challenged. He believes stress has a part of those issues.

“But you just try to get out of a situation and give yourself time to heal,” he said. “There are a lot of things to be thankful for. I have a brand new grandson, and now I have a daughter-in-law, so I have four kids, I have a great wife, and live in a great community.”

He said the biggest stumbling block to selling the company is that buyers want to take the business somewhere else.

Comeau and his doctors are keeping track of the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma since 2016, and none other than his local hospital is where he prefers to be, any time he needs care.

He became ill when he was in New York, and those around him wanted to take him to a hospital there. Comeau commanded them to get him on a plane, so he could check himself into Rooks County Health Center.

With the future up in the air, Comeau said, “for the last 20 years this town has been the backbone of this company.”

Now that future will be determined in the front lobby of the Ellis County Courthouse.