As managing editor of The Canton, Ohio, Repository has a breaking news item on the Web today, TTI Floor Care of North America announced this morning that it is closing the flagship North Canton plant that makes Hoover sweepers.
More than 800 Hoover employees are expected to lose their jobs by September. TTI will consolidate its manufacturing of Hoover sweepers in El Paso, Texas, and assemble them in Juarez, Mexico.
Here's some more information from a TTI news release:
Chris Gurreri, president of TTI Floor Care, said, "Speculation about the future of Hoover's Stark County facilities has held a cloud of doubt over this region for many years. The people here deserve to have such speculation ended now. When TTI bought Hoover at the end of January, we promised to do a comprehensive assessment of its facilities. We also promised to avoid dragging out the process and to communicate our decisions promptly.""This is hard news to hear and to deliver. We know how difficult this is for the Hoover people and the community because of the history, heritage and importance of this facility in the past," Gurreri said.
It adds: "Gurreri noted that even if North Canton costs were dramatically lower, the company has twice as much manufacturing capacity as is needed, with over 900,000 square feet of unused space and millions of dollars worth of dormant machinery in North Canton."
"There is no way this plant can be kept open. There is just far too much capacity throughout the company. If Ohio-based TTI Floor Care is to become the global leader in floor care and we are to develop and build the innovative products that enable us to do that, we must resolve this immense issue of overcapacity that is dragging on the company," he explained.
Our story from December, when TTI bought Hoover, explained that the North Canton plant is predominantly an injection molding operation.