|
|
|
|
|
About 190 lose jobs in closing
by Jule Hubbard
The 430,000-square-foot Lea/American Drew facility on Armory Road, North Wilkesboro, officially closed as a furniture manufacturing plant on Friday, leaving about 190 people without jobs.
Of 257 employees at the plant when closure plans were announced this spring, said company officials, about 30 still have jobs there because the facility will be used as a warehouse and for furniture repairs and other functions. Another 35 of the 257 employees accepted jobs at the 500,000-square-foot Kincaid Furniture No. 6 plant on U.S. 321 Business in Lenoir.
Lea, American Drew and Kincaid are all subsidiaries of Monroe, Mich.-based La-Z-Boy Co.
Meanwhile, the N.C. Employment Security Commission released a statewide report late last week showing Wilkes County's jobless rate increased to 13 percent in May. The rate had dropped from a record high of 13.8 percent in March to 12.4 percent in April.
Wilkes County's labor force of 30,826 people in May included 26,831 with jobs and 3,995 without jobs. Ann Bowlin, manager of the ESC office in North Wilkesboro, said the trend of small companies laying off two to five people at a time is continuing. Mrs. Bowlin noted that the Certainteed plant in Roaring River laid off about 10 people recently.
Manufacturing in the Armory Road facility ceased due to the facility's La-Z-Boy Hospitality, Lea Youth and American Drew operations being combined with Kincaid Solid Wood at the Kincaid No. 6 plant in Lenoir to reduce costs.
The Kincaid No. 6 plant had been vacant for three years, while Kincaid Solid Wood was already in a nearby plant in Lenoir. The Armory Road plant housed Wilkes County's largest furniture manufacturing operation.
Mrs. Bowlin said about 150 of the 257 people who worked at the Armory Road plant are scheduled to apply for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) benefits. These benefits are available to people who lose manufacturing jobs due to foreign competition.
She said that according to information supplied to the ESC, about two-thirds of the people who worked at the Armory Road plant were men. Average age of the employees was 52 and they had worked for American Drew an average of 20 years. Nineteen of them were over age 65.
In April, Caldwell County commissioners unanimously approved a payment schedule giving to La-Z-Boy Inc. $500,000 to help the company with a consolidation that included moving operations from the Armory Road plant to the vacant plant in Lenoir.
The $500,000 paid for moving print line and other furniture manufacturing equipment in the Armory Road plant in Lenoir. The consolidation is to be completed by September or October.
La-Z-Boy recently announced a fiscal fourth-quarter profit on a tax gain and improvement in its retail business.
Chief Executive Kurt L. Darrow credited the profit to La-Z-Boy's cost-cutting and said the company reduced its losses in the retail segment by $5 million from a year earlier, even on declining volume. La-Z-Boy has cut its work force by nearly 25 percent, suspended its dividend, closed stores and sold non-core assets as it struggled with lower sales from the recession and housing market collapse.
The cost-cutting included closing the Armory Road manufacturing operation and converting it to a finished-goods warehouse, as well as vacating a leased warehouse operation in Statesville. Those moves are expected to result in annual savings of $5 million to $6 million.
For the quarter ended April 25, the company reported a profit of $5.3 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with a loss of $4.4 million, or 9 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue dropped 23 percent to $284.5 million.
La-Z-Boy has had only three profitable quarters in the past 10. |
|
|
|
|
