CertainTeed Corp. is shuttering its vinyl window manufacturing site in Nesquehoning, Pa.
Valley Forge, Pa.-based CertainTeed plans to close the 220,000-square-foot site by May 30, said spokesman Mike Loughery. The move will affect 25 employees.
``Closing a manufacturing operation is never easy,'' window group President Harald Jacobsen said in a letter to employees. ``This decision was made after careful thought and thorough analysis.''
CertainTeed acquired the site in 1988 as part of Wolverine Siding Systems, and has used it to produce specialty windows such as octagon, circles, quarter rounds and half rounds. The site also fabricates patio doors. In the short term, officials said they plan to use Nesquehoning for storage.
Officials said the location would have become inefficient as a specialty fabrication operation once CertainTeed opened its new fabrication site in Lebanon, Ind., this month. CertainTeed also fabricates in Richmond, Va.
``Their priority [in Lebanon] is to hit the ground running March 31 without a hitch,'' Loughery said in a March 21 telephone interview. CertainTeed expects to start with 100 employees at the site, moving up to 350 in five years. Eventually, the company also will add extrusion operations there. Currently, one site in Hagerstown, Md., produces window and door lineals that feed Lebanon and Richmond.
Some of Nesquehoning's 25 employees will be offered positions in Lebanon.
``We're working with them and local job placement agencies to place them,'' Loughery said of workers at the nonunion shop.
CertainTeed reported $734 million in pipe and profile sales for 2001, with 2,995 employees.