Nypro Inc. is closing its Hazard, Ky., plant as it finishes the consolidation of its smaller automotive production facilities into larger custom injection molding sites.
The firm announced Aug. 24 that the Hazard plant will be phased out during the next four months and the work will be moved to Nypro plants in Louisville, Ky., Atlanta and a new facility to open in the next few months in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
The Hazard plant employs fewer than 50, and all full-time employees will be offered severance and outplacement assistance.
``This move completes our consolidation of Nypro automotive operations into larger, full-service facilities designed for large-scale molding and assembly requirements,'' said Scott Walton, president of Nypro Automotive, in a news release.
Nypro spokesman Al Cotton said Hazard is one of Nypro's smaller facilities. It has 20 injection presses, compared with 80 in Louisville and 30 in Atlanta.
Cotton said the closing is part of a restructuring started in the spring. Nypro's goal is to realign its approach along end-market parameters.
The company recently announced that it also is closing a plant in El Paso, Texas, in early 2007. Both Hazard and El Paso are part of Nypro's automotive wing. The company got into that market, and acquired a share of those plants, in 1997 as a joint venture with Louisville-based DJ Inc.
Nypro has more than 15,000 employees and sales that exceeded $1 billion in the last fiscal year.