By Dan Shaw, Evansville Courier & Press
Six workers have lost their jobs at Red Spot Paint & Varnish Co.
The cuts were a result of a falling demand from the automobile industry, said Emilee Hille, a Red Spot corporate director of integration and human resources. Red Spot makes coating for plastics parts used in vehicles.
The cuts bring the number of workers there to 267. "The cuts came throughout the company," she said. "They were not centered in a single department."
Hille said the company has tried to avoid local cuts by moving production to Evansville from Detroit. But that hasn't been enough to make up for slowing production in the automobile industry, which plans to build millions fewer cars this year than in 2008.
Hille said Red Spot does business with both domestic and foreign car companies. She couldn't connect the job losses to the troubles of any one manufacturer.
Red Spot was purchased last year by the Japanese company Fujichem. Fujichem is a subsidiary of Fujikura Kasei, which makes and sells derivatives of acrylic resins.
Red Spot dates to the early 1900s. It took its name from a riverboat docked along the Ohio River in Evansville. Harry D. Bourland liked the boat's name so much he took it for his line of paint sold at the hardware store he had started Downtown. He later began using a red bull's-eye as the company's trademark.