Evansville-based Flanders is eliminating 80 positions — nearly 10 percent of the company’s total workforce — with most of those cuts coming from the Evansville area.
Flanders designs, builds and services electric motors, generators, controls, drives and automation systems. It specializes in heavy industry including mining, metals, energy and others.
The company announced the layoffs via a news release issued Monday morning.
Allen Patterson, Flanders’ chief operating officer, said the layoffs are linked to the adverse market conditions that coal miners and oil/gas producers are currently facing.
Over the past year coal, oil and natural gas prices have all dropped significantly.
Several coal companies have announced recent layoffs or mine shutdowns — and many of those companies are Flanders customers, Patterson said.
“The majority of our business is in mining,” he said.
“When those markets suffer, we’re right along with them.”
Flanders has operations in the U.S., Africa, Australia, Canada and South America. It currently has about 850 employees, and the cuts will take that number to 730.
Patterson said the layoffs are spread throughout the company, and all will take effect by the end of the week. The company is offering severance packages and outplacement assistance to affected employees.
Going forward, Patterson said Flanders will be looking to diversify its business, both within the mining industry and in other industries.
Diversification can offer protection because if one part of the business goes soft, a company can lean on other parts that are performing more strongly.
Flanders is a privately held company in its third generation of family ownership.
The company had been in growth mode in recent years, going from about 650 employees in November 2011 to about 850 in September 2012.
Patterson said the company hasn’t had such a large-scale layoff since the 1980s.