Chicago, August 29: Home appliances manufacturer Whirlpool Corporation today said it will close its manufacturing facility in neighbouring Indiana by next year, resulting in approximately 1,100 job cuts, as it seeks to cut costs and trim excess capacity. The company will shift production of top freezer refrigerators, which were made at the Evansville, Indiana plant, to one of its existing manufacturing facilities in Mexico.
Closure of the Evansville facility would eliminate approximately 1,100 full time positions in mid-2010, Michigan-based Whirlpool said in a statement. The company would also shift production of icemakers manufactured at the Evansville unit to a company-owned site, which is yet to be determined.
“This was a difficult but necessary decision. To reduce excess capacity and improve costs the decision was made to consolidate production within our existing North American manufacturing facilities,” Whirlpool”s North American Manufacturing Operations vice president Al Holaday said.
The move would allow the company to streamline its operations, improve capacity utilisation, reduce product overlap between plants and meet future production requirements, Holaday added. .
—-PTI–