Fortis Plastics to close Fort Smith plant

Fortis Plastics, a vendor to Whirlpool’s plant in Fort Smith, has notified its almost 100 employees that the plant will shut down between Nov. 4 and Nov. 18.

Fortis officials in South Bend, Ind., have refused to return repeated calls.

Fort Smith City Administrator Ray Gosack confirmed late Tuesday (Oct. 18) that the city had received a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act letter from Fortis saying the company has had trouble raising capital for operations and will have to close. The company provides plastic components used by Whirlpool Corp. in its Fort Smith plant to produce refrigerators.

The WARN Act became effective in 1989 and was designed to require companies to notify workers, their families and communities 60 days in advance of covered plant closings and covered mass layoffs.

SIGNS OF TROUBLE
Concerns about the Fortis plant arose recently when Whirlpool workers said their assembly lines were closing early because of a shortage of parts from Fortis. Whirlpool’s plant did not operate on Oct. 16 because of the lack of parts.

Larry Knight, a human resources official with South Bend, Ind.-based Fortis, told The City Wire last week there were no problems with the Fort Smith plant. Whirlpool spokeswoman Kristine Vernier said it was “not unusual for this type of shortage to happen from time to time when a supplier is unable to deliver critical parts.”

At the time, 34-year Whirlpool employee Fred Denney disagreed with Vernier’s assessment, saying the shortage was unusual and that “Something else is going on.”

The Fortis operation, housed in what was formerly Atlantis Plastics, has had an up and down cycle in Fort Smith. The company announced in November 2008 a layoff of 70 employees, only to announce in February 2009 it would expand the Fort Smith plant — an expansion which added 77 jobs. At the time, the company employed about 230 in Fort Smith.

As Whirlpool’s Fort Smith production declined, Fortis employment trickled down to about 100 today.

ABOUT FORTIS
Fortis is a subsidiary of New York City-based Monomoy Capital Partners, and was formed in late 2008 when Monomoy purchased the plastics division of Leggett & Platt and the molded plastics division of Atlantis Plastics.

Under Fortis, Monomoy combined 14 facilities from four separate companies into seven operations, according info on Monomoy’s website. Monomoy, in it most recent report on investments, says Fortis generates $110 million in annual sales.

Earlier this year, Monomoy raised $400 million for a restructuring fund.

“We are thrilled with the quality and diversity of the limited partners that have committed to our second fund,” said Stephen Presser, a partner at Monomoy Capital Partners, said in this report. “The loyalty of our existing investor base plus strong interest from new investors reflects the success of our first fund.  Our second fund will allow Monomoy to take advantage of the unprecedented turnaround opportunities we see in the middle market as we continue to emerge from the economic turmoil of the past two years.”

 
Monomoy, which was founded in 2005, targets sound businesses with $70 million to $400 million in annual revenues in the manufacturing, services, distribution and consumer sectors. Companies Monomoy seeks to purchase are often facing operational, financial or strategic stress.

Through its debut fund, Monomoy has completed 30 transactions over the last five years and currently owns 10 businesses that employ more than 5,000 people in the U.S., Europe, Mexico, South America and Asia, and generate more than $1.2 billion in combined sales.