Home >  Business

Wednesday, June 12, 2002

By Joyce Gannon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Weeks away from a court-ordered auction to dispose of assets, bankrupt WRS Motion Picture and Video Laboratory is hoping it can somehow come up with $5 million to survive.

"This place could go away forever or we could get back on our feet and move forward," said Jack Napor, principal of the once-thriving film production and storage company in Crafton.

Last July, WRS abruptly shut down and laid off its 200-plus employees after the National Bank of Canada foreclosed on a $4.4 million loan. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and re-opened a month later to service a small number of customers who needed film duplication and video storage. It now employs Napor, his wife, Louise, and about 50 others, Napor said.

With the auction scheduled for July 17, Napor is trying to raise enough money to buy the equipment himself and reorganize the 50-year-old company. He also is trying to lease parts of the 195,000-square-foot facility, located on 43 acres off Route 60, to other companies that could use it for manufacturing, labs or assembly operations.

Robert O. Lampl, attorney for WRS, said an outside group also is trying to arrange a deal to buy the equipment and operate a new business at the site, but he did not elaborate.

Founded in 1952, WRS was once a nationally recognized film storage and restoration facility that held original copies of movies including "Night of the Living Dead."

It once operated branches in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Houston.