Prime to close US finishing site
01/09/2008
Prime Tanning has announced its intention to cease leather finishing operations at its Berwick, Maine leather finishing facility and move all of Berwick’s production volumes into its Hartland facility, which is also in Maine.
Leather is already being moved to Hartland from Berwick; the company believes it will have the balance of the leathers transitioned by October.
Prime Tanning merged with Cudahy Tanning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Irving Tanning in Hartland Maine in November 2007, and since that time has been engaged in an intensive domestic reorganisation to improve efficiencies and profitability. As part of this reorganisation, the Cudahy facility was closed in May 2008 and its leather volumes successfully transferred into Prime’s Hartland finishing facility.
Prime will work with state and local agencies to organise the facility
closure, as well as provide ongoing job transition support for the employees
involved. While 150 individuals will be affected by closure of the Berwick
finishing operations, employment levels at the Hartland facility will rise as
a result of the increased production there. Prime will continue to use its
Berwick offices as its temporary headquarters while it seeks a sale of the
facility.
Chief executive, Robert Moore, commented: “This was a very difficult but
necessary decision for Prime as we work to streamline our domestic operations
and improve profitability. Like many manufacturing businesses in the US we
have been adversely and negatively affected by unprecedented increases in the
cost of energy and chemicals and the general economic slowdown. These
unforeseen developments have hastened our need to eliminate excess costs and
overhead, and our success as a company depends upon our ability to act
decisively to achieve that result. We continue to believe the very best way
to serve our loyal customers is as a stable, profitable, and consistent
supplier, and this reorganization will ensure that we continue to meet that
objective.”
On March 31, 2008, Prime announced its intention to merge with Shanghai
Richina Leather Co., Ltd. ("SRL") to form Prime Leather International, which
will form one of the leading suppliers of leather worldwide. This transaction
is still expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
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