Myers' plant closings to cut 200 jobs
AKRON, OHIO — Myers Industries Inc. will close plants in Nevada, Ontario and British Columbia next year as part of a planned restructuring of its lawn and garden division.
Akron-based Myers announced the closings Dec. 17. It first revealed plans to streamline manufacturing back in August. The closures will cut about 200 jobs.
The company molds nursery containers in Sparks, Nev., and does plastic recycling and molding in Brantford, Ontario. Those plants will close by March. A decorative resin planter molding site in Surrey, British Columbia, will close in July. Work from those plants will be shipped to five other Myers facilities.
``This realignment will strengthen the competitive position of our lawn and garden brands by consolidating to strategic locations where we can fully utilize our high-speed molding capacity, reduce operating costs and achieve greater customer service efficiency,'' President and Chief Executive Officer John Orr said in a news release.
Myers previously had cut about 200 jobs during 2008 through other measures, said company spokesman Max Barton.
KA shuttles auto work from US to Mexico
KONGSBERG, NORWAY — Norway's Kongsberg Automotive Holding ASA, which spent $560 million to buy 15 North American plants from Teleflex Inc. in March, is closing some of those sites.
The Kongsberg -based firm is rapidly restructuring, and closing plants including plastics operations in Van Wert, Ohio, and Haysville, Kan. That production is slated to move to Mexico.
``This restructuring is driven by the global automotive market collapse,'' said Kongsberg Automotive Chief Executive Officer Olav Volldal in a Dec. 13 news release. ``KA, like other automotive suppliers, has seen drastic volume reductions globally over the last few months, and the largest impact has so far been in North America.''
Composite hose manufacturing will move from Van Wert to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, by the summer, cutting 109 jobs. Injection molding will move to Matamoros from Haysville, with the Haysville plant — formerly called Norland Plastics Co. — closing in the summer and taking 100 jobs with it.
AdvantaPure boosts clean room molding
SOUTHAMPTON, PA. — AdvantaPure has expanded its clean room capacity for silicone molding.
The Southampton firm spent about $200,000 to boost molding clean room space from 832 square feet to 3,532 square feet, said marketing coordinator Ann Phy. AdvantaPure also added five liquid silicone injection presses, bringing its total to seven.
The expansion comprises two new clean rooms, one dedicated to molding silicone manifolds for pharmaceutical, food, biomedical and other clean applications. The other clean room is for making and packaging hose assemblies and for pressure testing. The company's original clean room makes silicone stoppers and sealing systems for glass, metal and plastic containers. All three rooms are rated Class 100,000.
Advantapure is a unit of Southampton-based NewAge Industries Inc., which manufactures flexible plastic tubing and hose.
Fortis considers HQ site, plant closings
HENDERSON, KY. — Injection molder Fortis Plastics LLC is considering incentives of up to $4 million to locate its headquarters in Kentucky, according to a document filed by the state for the Kentucky Industrial Revitalization Act.
Fortis' owner, New York-based Monomoy Capital Partners LP, said: ``Fortis Plastics LLC is currently considering several possible locations for its headquarters and plans have not yet been finalized.'' The incentive offer came from the state of Kentucky.
Private equity firm Monomoy created Fortis in 2008, after acquiring six Atlantis Plastics Inc. injection molding plants, and L&P Plastics LLC and its four injection and structural molding plants. Fortis announced plans in November to shut down former Atlantis plants in LaVergne, Tenn., and Alamo, Texas.
The company also has operations in Henderson; Carlyle, Ill.; Popular Bluff, Mo.; Booneville, Miss.; Brownsville, Texas; Fort Smith, Ark; Jackson, Tenn.; and Elkhart, Ind.
The Dec. 11 KIRA filing said Fortis is mulling options that include closing Henderson and consolidating in Tennessee and Arkansas; closing Henderson and Elkhart and moving assets to LaVergne; or retaining Henderson as its headquarters and closing other sites, which the state said could create 104 new jobs.