|
|
The company said the layoffs amount to about 15 percent of its workforce and are "due to lower demand for its products as a result of an unprecedented weak economic environment."
Officials said the layoffs were seniority-based and added, "The Brookville operation will remain in production and there are no plans for closure of the plant."
The integration of outsourced production volume, the company said in a release announcing the layoffs, "did not prove to be enough to ride out the market weakness as demand for commercial refrigeration equipment continues to be at all-time lows with no signs of turnaround."
Beverage-Air was acquired in May by the ALI Group, a private company and commercial food service equipment manufacturer headquartered in Milan, Italy, that employs 7,200 people in 66 companies in 12 countries.
Officials said ALI undertook new product development and invested in new equipment at the plant. That equipment has been installed, product lines previously produced in Mexico are made exclusively in Brookville and five new product lines have been installed.
Beverage-Air was founded as the Punxsutawney Company in 1944 by Herman Buffington.
In 1957, it built a plant in Spartansburg, S.C., and was renamed Beverage-Air.
The company said Beverage-Air is one of the largest suppliers of commercial refrigeration to the North American food service industry with its plant in Brookville and corporate offices in Spartansburg.
It produces and distributes upright solid and glass door reach-in refrigerators and freezers, sandwich and pizza prep tables, worktop and undercounter storage units, chef stands, school milk coolers, beer dispensing, back bar storage units, deli display cabinets, merchandisers and blast chiller freezers.
