Solar Corp. will close later this month, according to a union official.
The company, which was founded in 1946, does injection molding and thermoforming mostly for the automotive and electronics industries. Wynnchurch Capital Ltd. of Lake Forest, Ill., bought Solar in February 2005.
``[Solar executives] announced last Thursday [June 1] that the plant would be closing. We've asked Wynnchurch for time to find a buyer instead of closing,'' said Mark Meinster, international representative for United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America.
Calls to officials at Solar and Wynnchurch were not returned.
Meinster said that about 200 workers attended a rally near the Wynnchurch building in Lake Forest on June 8 to protest the closing and to ask the owners to find a buyer to keep the business running. He said Wynnchurch told the workers at the rally that it would attempt to find a buyer.
Meinster said Solar employs about 250 union and 50 nonunion workers. He said that the company had planned to close the plant on June 23.
Solar has a 250,000-square-foot facility on 17 acres, plus a 32,000-square-foot warehouse. The company has presses ranging from 28-2,200 tons of clamping force.