Chinese firm resurrects Shop-Vac

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Vacuum maker Shop-Vac, which abruptly announced in September it was going out of business, is instead to be acquired by the U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese conglomerate. GreatStar Tools USA, a division of Hangzhou GreatStar Industrial Co. Ltd., plans to retain Shop-Vac’s brand and hire most of the employees laid off from its Pennsylvania plant in order to restore production to previous levels. Those workers will however be considered new employees of a company GreatStar is creating to administer the Shop-Vac business. Still, one former customer service representative at the plant, who learned after getting home from Christmas Eve services that she would be going back to work, told the Philadelphia Inquirer the news was “the best Christmas present ever”.