Additive manufacturing company Shapeways announced last July it would move its 3D plastics and metal plant to Livonia.
A New York City-based 3D printing company that moved to Michigan in 2023 through an acquisition of Livonia, Mich.-based Linear AMS has filed for bankruptcy liquidation.
Shapeways Holdings Inc. and a pair of affiliate companies filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy the first week of July in the District of Delaware after months of bleeding money and a failed bid for a strategic alternative, according to the filing and financial reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Shapeways Holdings and Shapeways Inc. had total liabilities of $3.2 million, while Linear AMS had liabilities totaling $1.75 million, with $10.15 million worth of assets.
The company was burning cash at a rate of $1.6 million per month, CEO Gregory Kress said on an earnings call in March.
Listed on the Nasdaq under ticker “SHPW,” the company’s value evaporated from a peak $83 per share in early 2021 to 30 cents per share as of July 8.
The additive manufacturer had postured for a big push into the automotive industry when it acquired Linear AMS, a CNC machining and molding company, in 2022. That plan was stymied by an “elongated sales cycle for enterprise sales and longer than anticipated adoption of software features,” Kress said on the earnings call.
“Ultimately, we’re taking a big step back and thinking about what we should be doing with the company,” he said. “The company continues to have a really, really strong foundation, continue to show momentum in certain areas but remains small and somewhat subscale for the expense of it being a public company.”
3D printing has for years been touted as the next wave of advancement in manufacturing though has yet to scale up to its potential. The Shapeways liquidation appears to reflect the broader headwinds of the 3D printing market.
Neither Kress nor the attorney representing the company in the bankruptcy returned requests for comment Monday.
Shapeways made a splash last July in announcing a plan to invest $5 million and create 75 jobs in Livonia after moving its manufacturing from Long Island, New York. The company also acquired a Linear AMS plant in Charlotte. At the time, the two Michigan plants employed 36, while Shapeways had 176 workers on payroll outside the state.
The Michigan Economic Development Corp. awarded the company a $375,000 performance-based grant to "address the cost disadvantage of locating the project in Michigan when compared to the competing sites in New York and New Jersey.”
Crain’s inquired with the MEDC about the status of that grant.
To reduce its cash burn, the company cut 15% of its headcount at the end of last year, COO Alberto Recchi said on the earnings call. That resulted in $6.2 million in cost savings.
In May, the Nasdaq warned the company it was out of compliance after it failed to file its quarterly report for the period ended March 31.
In 2023, the company’s revenue ticked up 4% from the year prior to $34.5 million, but its net loss more than doubled over that period to $43.9 million.
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