DARRELL SMITH and GARY HUFFERD, Connersville News-Examiner Staff reporters
The tough economic times have hit Stant Manufacturing Inc. with the announcement Thursday that 15 persons at the local plant were laid off on Wednesday, according to company president Marlon Bailey.
"We've just had a tough year," Bailey said by telephone. "The first half of the year I would say was fairly normal. In the third quarter, we could see real significant changes in the industrial budget but more pronounced in the automotive. As we got into the fourth quarter, the automotive sector has really tanked and continues to be very soft sales."
In addition to the local jobs lost Wednesday, the company began a reduction in force earlier in the year that has totaled about 80 workers locally - about evenly divided between salary and hourly associates -leaving about 200 employees locally, Bailey said.
Worldwide, the reduction in force totals about 285 workers, he said. That included the complete shutdown of the Waltham, Mass., facility with the majority of workers going to Pine Bluff, Ark., and some positions moving to Connersville - those continue to work.
With the closing and latest layoffs, there are about 750 employees continuing to work at plants in Pine Bluff and the headquarters facility in Connersville in the U.S., as well as in the Czech Republic, Mexico and China, he said.
"They started laying off around the first of August, I guess," said Chad Cranfill, who lost his job Dec. 1. "It started going downhill from there."
Cranfill said he had worked at Stant for 13 years and was one of five design draftsman employed when he lost his job. He said he finds himself in the same boat as many other area workers.
"[I'm] just trying to find something, like a lot of the people there," he said.
Deborah McQueen lost her job as a second-shift supervisor on Nov. 21 after being a union member there for almost 30 years. She said she had been a supervisor for five years before losing her job.
"I was told it was due to the economy they were cutting back on costs and they were letting me go," she said.
Although she is not working now, she said she harbors no ill will.
"I made a good living for a lot of years there, she said.
Bailey said the company is fortunate to be diversified with three segments of business - industrial, automotive original equipment and aftermarket - which has helped in the current tough economic times. The automotive sector has been poor, the industrial sector is weak but the aftermarket segment, which is somewhat softer than last year, has held up reasonably well, he said.
About 55 percent of company business is automotive, and of that, approximately 40 percent is to the Detroit "Big Three" - General Motors, Ford and Chrysler - and it used to be higher, Bailey said. Nissan and Hyundai are very good customers with a little business going to Toyota and Honda. There is a lot of sales in Europe to Peugeot and other companies, he added.
Stant has long had a strong aftermarket segment, controlling about two-thirds of the aftermarket market, and industrial customers that will also help the company going forward, he said.
"We have some good base business and some really great people work here and because of that, we will survive through this period," Bailey said.
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