By Marilyn Odendahl, Truth Staff
modendahl@etruth.com
ELKHART -- The economy is being blamed for another layoff in the city but this time the impacted company is not a part of the struggling recreational vehicle industry.
Valmont Industries, 58027 Charlotte Ave., has filed a notice with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development that it will lay off 70 workers, beginning June 16.
The local operation is in Valmont's engineered support structures division, making steel and aluminum poles for street lights and traffic signals as well as extruding aluminum for its own use and other industrial customers.
Valmont plans to consolidate Elkhart's steel segment into plants in Valley, Neb., and Brenham, Texas, according to Elkhart plant manager Franco Garcia.
Currently 119 work in the Elkhart facility, Garcia said. The layoffs will affect 57 workers in the shop and 13 employees in the office, with 39 remaining in production and 10 staying to handle administrative duties.
The downsized employees are being given separation packages along with the opportunity to interview for jobs at other Valmont facilities outside Elkhart, Garcia said.
Valmont's letter to the state notes shop employees from the steel operations unit may be able to bump employees with less seniority in the aluminum services unit.
Valmont reported a 6 percent bump in sales to $158.4 million in the first quarter of 2009, which it attributed to the impact of acquisitions made during 2008, according to the company's earnings release. Overall, demand was lower and operating income dropped 20 percent to $8.1 million.
The federal stimulus money and the resulting highway projects could spur the need for light poles, Garcia said, but right now the company has excess capacity.
Headquartered in Nebraska, Valmont was founded in 1946 and started an operation in Elkhart in 1988.
While the company will be moving the steel operations, it will not be moving the steel assets out of the Charlotte Avenue building, Garcia said. Valmont is still discussing what to do with the equipment.