Novares SA will close a Novares Americas Engine Components Inc. site in Richland Center, Wis., affecting 74 employees.
The company said in a notice filed with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development June 17 it will end all operations at the location by Nov. 30 and will begin permanently laying off employees on or after Aug. 17, "periodically," until the facility is closed, the automotive supplier said in the notice.
The facility will close due to Novares' "decision to discontinue the production lines at that location," the notice said. The positions eliminated include 67 hourly and seven salaried workers.
"Due to our softening sales and other global economic factors, our revenue has dropped significantly," Novares Group said in an emailed statement to Plastics News. "For the last several months, we have been optimizing our operations across all plants. The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the fact that, like many other businesses, we cannot stay the course and that we need to operate differently and make further adjustments."
Employees at the Richland Center facility are not represented by a union and do not have bumping rights, it said.
The factory was part of Miniature Precision Components, which Novares purchased in early 2019.
Novares Group exited receivership legal proceedings in France on May 28, a process similar to U.S. Chapter 11 protection.
Novares USA LLC, based in Livonia, Mich., ranked No. 20 in Plastics News' survey of North American injection molders, with estimated sales of $410 million.