Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. will close its New Haven, Conn., manufacturing facility and move its silicone sponge rubber and pressure-sensitive adhesive tape operations to the firm's two plants in Hoosick Falls, N.Y.
The shutdown will cost 65 workers their jobs.
The Wayne, N.J.-based company is expanding its Liberty Street facility in Hoosick Falls 10,000 square feet to accommodate machinery transferred from New Haven.
The addition will bring the combined square footage of the Liberty Street and McCaffrey Street factories, located on a 17-acre site, to 130,000 square feet.
Some of the processing formerly done in New Haven also will transfer into available space at the McCaffrey Street location, a company spokeswoman said.
The move is expected to be completed by the end of 2003, Scott D. Yudkin, applications manager for advanced films and fabrics, said at the International Silicone Conference, held April 22-23 in Cleveland. The Hoosick Falls factories, which employ about 165, currently make adhesive tapes and high performance films, he said.
Of the 65 employees to be laid off at the 120,000-sq.-ft. New Haven site, which Saint-Gobain began operating in 1924, 44 are represented by the United Steelworkers of America. The union reached agreement on the work shift April 14, the spokeswoman said.
Steve Hutter, general manager of the Specialty Films & Tapes business unit of the Films, Foams & Fabrics division, said the company will work closely with employees and the union ``to ease the transition for them and their families.''
The number of jobs created by the Hoosick Falls expansion has yet to be determined and will be based on the firm's business requirements, said Brant Bottum, Hoosick Falls plant manager. Hiring will begin in late summer or early fall.
``The restructuring allows us to improve our cost structure amid increasing global competitive pressures and bring very similar operations into one facility,'' according to Hutter. ``It will also help us bring our capacity in line with demand and serve our customers more efficiently.''
Saint-Gobain probably will sell the New Haven factory, the spokeswoman said.
The New Haven plant closure is the second made by Saint-Gobain in the last few months. In February, the company closed its Sparta, N.J., tubing facility because the factory was ill-suited for expansion or modernization, it said.
The plant produced silicone tubing and molded tubing assemblies for the medical and pharmaceutical industries. Its 40 workers were laid off.
The firm transferred equipment from the site to operations in Beaverton, Mich., and Yauton, Mass.