HomeMy WebLinkAboutLucknow Sentinel, 2009-01-21, Page 1Wodimsdas
January st2o@9
- • ...
Week 4 — Vol. 136
$1.w
gst included
Publications Mail Registration
No. 07656
N • pv
Bringing Together
Huron & Bruce
dos
ingham
Lucknow and area has received its fair share of snow this winter and it doesn't seem
to be stopping anytime soon. That put Chris Selby (bottom photo) to work clean-
ing off the roofs of businesses on Campbell' St.
BY GARIT REID
Sentinel Staff
Wescast Industries Inc. a
manufacturer :: of exhaust
systems announced last
week that : it would be
restructuring its North
American operations sig-
nificantly, which will see
the loss of about 140 jobs.
They will be closing the
Wingham a North Huron
foundry and transferring
the plant's productions to
its second : Wingham
foundry, which is located
�n ater St.
The move coincides pri-
marily due to the state of
the economy, especially to
the automotive industry.
"The very difficult deci-
sion to close the Wingham
North Huron foundry
came after a careful evalu-
ation of, our cost ` structure,
expected future business
volumes and available
capacity in other facili-
ties," said Wescast
Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer Ed
Frackowiak in their offi-
cial press release.
Wescast will look to
close the plant by the end
of the first quarter of this
year and report it will look
to save an estimated annu-
al fixed savings cost of $10
million. dbllars. The
restructuring charges asso-
ciated with the reduced
production volumes are
expected to be in the range
of $60-65 million dollars.
A point Frackowiak
wanted to stress is the 140
jobs being cut will be
mostly workers,who are
currently on:tmporary
leave.
The two Wingham
foundries operate under
the same collective bar
gaining agreement, so the
streamlining will impact
workers at both
plants. Wescastis a compa-
ny that needs to : run at
capacity and adhere tocus-
tomer 'demand,- said
Frackowiak. Current con-
ditions in, the auto industry
make it impossible to do
that; thus the Wingham
plant is slated for closing.
"We've been hithard,
but Wescast has done ar
good job buffering through
the storm. We are moth-
balling the plant and have
plans to reopen it in the
future," said Frackowiak.
Continued on page 2
Wescast Industries Inc., Wingham North Huron Foundry