ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. will close a custom injection molding plant to cut costs.
The firm said Oct. 19 it will phase out its Bowmanville, Ontario, operation in its Precision Components Group and relocate production to other group facilities in Cambridge, Ontario, and Shanghai. It expects to complete the consolidation by mid-2008.
The leased site in Bowmanville, about 25 miles east of Toronto, employs 88 in 34,000 square feet of space. Called ATS' Micro Precision Plastics division, it logged sales of about C$12 million (US$10.6 million) for the year ended March 31.
``In North America, this consolidation reduces our cost base while intensifying our injection moulding capabilities,'' Precision Components Group Vice President Bruce Seeley said in a news release. Moving work to the China site will attract new customers there, he added.
Precision Components' other manufacturing facility is a metal-stamping and assembly unit in Stratford, Ontario. The group's chief markets are automotive, medical, electronics, business machines and consumer products. ATS opened the Shanghai facility in 2002.
ATS estimates one-time costs associated with the closure at C$1.8 million (US$1.6 million).
In mid-2005, ATS closed a Precision Components plant in Texas.
ATS' other businesses are automation technologies and solar energy cells. The Cambridge-based firm employs about 3,800 at 26 plants around the world.