Automotive supplier Grammer Americas is planning more layoffs at the Beloit, Wis., plant of its Toledo Molding & Die LLC unit.
The jobs of 52 employees will be eliminated Feb. 17, Grammer said in a notice filed Dec. 16 with the Wisconsin Bureau of Workforce Training, as required under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
Grammer and TMD did not respond to requests for more information.
In the notice, Grammer called the action a mass layoff, and the state classified it as a workforce reduction. But the WARN letter filed by the company also said the layoffs are the "result of the Beloit plant closing."
The company also laid off 27 employees in Beloit in January. Those permanent layoffs were attributed to the reduced production schedule of "a major OEM customer."
The Beloit plant opened in 2017 to injection mold Jeep Cherokee interior parts for the Fiat Chrysler Automotive assembly plant in Belvidere, Ill. The Illinois plant is now owned by Stellantis NV, which recently announced it will idle the facility and its 1,350 workers indefinitely starting Feb. 28. Stellantis is an Amsterdam corporation formed in 2021 in a merger between Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA Group.
When the Beloit plant was announced in 2016, state economic development officials said the 105,000-square-foot facility would create 118 jobs. At the time, TMD said it would invest more than $14 million in the site.
Ursensollen, Germany-based Grammer AG bought TMD and its 11 North American injection molding, blow molding and mold making plants in 2018 for $271 million. TMD makes door panels, glove boxes, pillars and center console parts as well as functional, non-visible parts such as ducts, front-end components, fans, coolant systems and resonators.
TMD is No. 55 of 591 companies in Plastics News' ranking of North American injection molders, with estimated 2021 sales of $182 million.