Therma Tru to close Roland plant; more than 220 jobs lost (Updated)
by January 23, 2009 8:50 am 162 views
The Therma Tru plant in Roland, Okla., is yet another regional victim of the downturn in the national housing market.
The Maumee, Ohio-based company announced Thursday it will close the plant — which produces fiberglas and steel doors and door components — by fall 2009. The more than 220 employees remaining at the relatively new manufacturing plant will be offered transitional assistance and job search training for all employees.
Company officials cited the lack of demand in the housing market for the plant closure.
Therma Tru opened its 400,000-square foot Roland plant opened in 2000, replacing a smaller plant in Van Buren. Company officials said then they employed 270 at the plant. In early 2006, the plant saw a 54,000-square-foot expansion, with company officials saying employment would increase to 370.
In October 2008, Therma Tru announced it would close its plant in Fredericksburg, Va., by July 2009. That plant also employed about 200. As is the case in Roland, company officials blamed the downturn in the housing sector for the plant closure
Therma Tru, purchased by the Fortune Brands in 2003, also has manufacturing locations in Butler, Ind., and Matamoras, Mexico.
The U.S. Commerce Department reported Thursday (Jan. 22) that housing starts in December fell to an annual rate of 550,000, the lowest since the agency began keeping the statistics in 1959. For all of 2008, housing starts fell to 904,300, down 33% from the 1.335 million in 2007.