Wayland, New York-based Gunlocke Company, a manufacturer of high-end wood office furniture and seating products, has downsized its workforce by terminating 30 employees and laying off 70 workers in its Wayland plant.
According to a parent corporation spokesperson, “There were 100 employees affected by this layoff. About 70 of them were laid off and 30 members were terminated. It is primarily due to the volume of business. The volume of products being manufactured at the Wayland facility is down significantly to the size of staffing. The staffing was too large to support the volume we were getting from the plant. The size of the workforce there was not in balance with what products we got from the facility. This layoff affected all the departments in the plant. It was across the board at the facility. It was largely based on seniority, so we try to protect the longer service members. There weren’t any particular areas or departments that were shut down. We just downsized across the manufacturing operation.” “We do all we can to reduce the cost before we talk about laying anyone off. It was decided last week that we would have to lay some people off. Gunlocke continues to be a viable and successful business for us. We hope to keep it viable in the future.”
Gunlocke is owned by Muscatine, Iowa-based HON Industries (now known as HNI) a manufacturer of inexpensive steel office furniture and operates as a subsidiary of Allsteel. Some of the products made at the Wayland plant will now be manufactured in HNI’s Iowa facility. The layoffs may have surprised some after Gunlocke recently increased its manufacturing capabilities and obtained state economic incentives.
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