Released on May 18, 2009

Diecasting conglomerate Pace Industries LLC, Fayetteville, Ark., announced it will shut down its Monroe City, Mo., and Jonesboro, Ark., locations primarily in response to decreasing customer orders.

The company, which operates 13 diecasting plants in 11 divisions, said it will move the remaining customer orders from each of the plants into other facilities with comparable capabilities.

“They’re two businesses where the volumes were down disproportionately,” said the company’s director of marketing John Scott Bull. “We have other divisions that specialize in their type of business, so it was a good fit to move their production into some other facilities.”

According to Bull, the Monroe City plant closure, which was announced last week, will result in 190 employees being laid off by the middle of July. Some of the workers will move to other Pace locations, and the others will enter programs to find new jobs. The remaining work from the 240,000-sq.-ft. plant will be taken up by Pace’s EST Division, Grafton, Wis., and Airo Division, Loyalhanna, Pa.

Bull said the Jonesboro plant, known as the B&C Division, was a smaller operation that will be almost entirely integrated into the nearby Harrison Division, Harrison, Ark. The 62,000 sq. ft. plant’s equipment and the majority of its 15 employees will be moved.

According to Bull, Pace serves a variety of markets, with only a small portion of its castings going to automotive customers. But decreases across all markets have necessitated the consolidation.

“It’s due to two main conditions,” Bull said. “The economic environment right now, with orders down, coupled with our lean initiatives. We’ve opened up space at our other facilities, and the executive team is determining the best course of action [for the closed facilities].”