Kaydon To Close Its Plant In 2006

The Kaydon Custom Filtration Corporation plant, which has operated in Greeneville under various names for 43 years, will close sometime during the coming year, the company has announced. The specific timing of the closing has not been announced. However, Ron Sanders, the plant manager for the past nine years, said he expects the plant to close toward the middle of the year. The Kaydon plant, at 515 Bohannon Ave., currently has only 23 employees. Sanders said that 20 years ago, the plant had several hundred workers. Several years ago, it had 55 employees. Kaydon said it decided to move its Greeneville operations to a company plant in LaGrange, Ga., south of Atlanta, to help reduce overall operating costs while gaining efficiencies in development and planned growth.? The company announcement said, the systems and elements operations are interdependent businesses segments that will now be run synergistically rather than previously run as independent businesses. The action will result in closure of the Greeneville, Tenn., facility within the next year, affecting 23 current employees,the announcement concluded. Comment From LaGrange A company spokesperson at the Kaydon plant in LaGrange also declined to give a precise timetable for the Greeneville plant closing, saying specific dates have yet to be set, but he said mid-year 2006 is a good estimated closing time. The spokesperson, who asked not to be named, said Kaydon Greeneville employees were notified of the plant-closing decision in mid November. He said some of the local employees were offered the opportunity to transfer to the LaGrange operations, but none accepted that offer. The company spokesperson said that about 10 of the affected employees, many of them with considerable years of employment with Kaydon, may retire, benefiting from company pensions they have earned and bonuses the company recently announced. GCP Johnson Comments Commenting on the plant-closing decision, Tom Johnson, president of the Greene County Partnership, said, while we respect the need of the company to become more efficient in its operations, we, nevertheless, are sorry to lose Kaydon, a company that has been here for over 40 years. But we certainly wish them the best. We are concerned for the 23 affected workers and their families. Hopefully, when the Kaydon plant closes, they will be able to find employment locally.? Company Background Kaydon Greeneville plant makes turbine oil conditioners for public utilities, paper mills and other industries as well as liquid-handling devices and filter separators for various applications Kaydon Custom Filtration Corporation is a subsidiary of the parent company, Kaydon Corporation, which is based in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Greeneville plant was opened in 1962 under the ownership of Bowser Inc., of Fort Wayne, Ind. In 1968, Keene Corporation bought Bowser, changing its name to Keene. Later, Keene formed a New York-based holding company, Bairnco Inc. In the mid-1960s, Keene also bought Kaydon Bearings, of Muskegon, Mich. In 1984, the Greeneville plant became part of the Kaydon group, and in 1985 Bairnco, spun off Kaydon, turning it into an independent, publicly held corporation.