Albany, Minnesota-based Wells Concrete, a manufacturer and installer of pre-cast concrete products, has announced that the company plans to reduce a major portion of its operations in there Grand Forks, North Dakota with layoffs commencing in late December 2019. The closure of a major portion of the plant will affect 92 employees, mostly involved in the manufacture of pre-stressed concrete products. A number of employees will remain to decommission the plant before its ultimate closure.
According to Dan Juntunen, Wells Concrete’s President and CEO, “I would say that the decision was made two weeks ago. But I would say that really it has been something we have been struggling with for about two years. Just with so much of the North Dakota economy is tied to oil and agriculture, so it has been a little bit of a hit or miss issue for us for about two years."
A company spokesperson added, “Finally we had to make a decision on what our long-term goals are going to look like here. The company will still be servicing its customers across North Dakota, Northern Minnesota and Montana and the company’s Minnesota facilities can meet its needs. We have too much capacity within our own pipeline, and all the work that we can contract, we can produce out of our three remaining facilities. This was a very hard decision that we had to make, but one that needed to be executed.”
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?