Frigidaire move prompts Holm layoffs
SCOTTSBURG, IND. - Gasket producer Holm Industries Inc. will lay off 127 workers from its Scottsburg head office plant.
The cutbacks reflect a move by the plant's main customer, Frigidaire, to relocate production to Mexico from Greenville, Mich., according to a local news report. Holm, which has three plants in Mexico, will supply Frigidaire from one of them.
The 315 employees in Scottsburg make vinyl gaskets, Holm human resource manager Ted Davies told Business First in Louisville, Ky. The company did not return calls to Plastics News. The layoffs will occur from Oct. 17 to March. Holm first filed a layoff notice Aug. 12 with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
Holm will continue to operate a blending facility in Scottsburg that supplies vinyl compounds to all of Holm's facilities, according to Davies. Holm and affiliates have 12 plants in the United States and Mexico.
Frigidaire is a division of Swedish appliance major Electrolux AB of Sweden. Electrolux has been moving production to low-cost areas to meet competitive pressures from rivals such as Whirlpool Corp. and Maytag Corp. Electrolux operates a plant in Ciudad Ju rez, Mexico.
New firm arises from bankrupt recycler
ELYRIA, OHIO - Stakeholders in a bankrupt Indiana plastics recycling company are moving its production division to Elyria with a new name.
Joseph Bork, a partner in engineering consulting firm Broadview Group LLC of Westlake, Ohio, said the new company, Advanced Plastics Reclaiming LLC, will be housed in a 101,000-square-foot building that has been vacant for about three years.
Broadview is buying the assets of bankrupt Cable Plastic Reclaiming Inc. of La Porte, Ind. The investors said they are spending $8 million on the plan, including $4.5 million to buy the building and adjacent property in Elyria.
Advanced Plastics has set up a temporary site in an 18,000-square-foot building in nearby Westlake, while the Elyria building is renovated. Advanced plans to invest another $3 million in equipment and $500,000 in building upgrades in Elyria.
Bork's two partners in the 3-year-old Broadview Group will help oversee Advanced. The partners are Advanced owner Steve Paspek and the new plant manager in Elyria, Alan Schroeder.
All three partners collaborated on a float/sink process that separates plastics used in cable wiring that Advanced acquires from telecommunications firms. The main materials Advanced will harvest include polyethylene, PVC, nylon and copper.
Schroeder said once the Elyria site is fully operational, it can reprocess between 20 million and 24 million pounds of plastic a year. Advanced expects 2006 sales of $6 million to $8 million.
``We're hiring about 35 now,'' Schroeder said. ``We will need [a total of] 50 in the next 18 months.''
In late August, the Ohio Department of Development approved a 55 percent job-creation tax credit for seven years that will save the company $275,418 during its life. The state also is providing a $1.1 million, 15-year loan that carries a 3 percent interest rate.
Gobain merging U.S. foam operations
AURORA, OHIO - Saint Gobain Performance Plastics of Aurora is consolidating North American foam production into one facility.
By March, the company will close an 81,000-square-foot site in Malvern, Pa., and expand production at its Granville, N.Y., plant. The Malvern site was founded in 1966 as Norwood Industries, and Saint Gobain acquired it in 2000, spokeswoman Susan Lindsey said in a Sept. 29 telephone interview.
Saint Gobain employs 43 at Malvern; in Granville, it employs 150. The amount of equipment to be shuffled is yet to be determined, Lindsey said. Granville will not undergo a physical plant expansion.
The firm makes foam products for end markets including electronics and automotive at the Granville site, officials said.
Key lays off 63 in Indiana plant closing
NORTHVILLE, MICH. - Auto parts injection molder Key Plastics LLC will close its Hamilton, Ind., plant.
The Northville-based firm notified the Indiana Department of Workplace Development on Sept. 22 that it will shut the facility beginning Nov. 25. Key reported that the plant's shutdown will put 63 employees out of work. Another 11 temporary workers will lose jobs, according to Richard Blough, senior vice president of corporate communications.
The company has excess capacity because the Big Three automakers have been losing market share, Blough said. Production at Hamilton will cease by year's end and the plant will be put up for sale in January.
Blough said Hamilton's 18 presses will be deployed elsewhere in the company. The Hamilton site, one of Key's smaller plants, injection molds exterior door handles.
