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Plastic-Products Plant to Close

Posted on: Tuesday, 22 November 2005, 18:00 CST

By Michelle Machado, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

Nov. 22--STOCKTON -- IRIS USA Inc. will shutter its money-losing Stockton plastic-products plant during the first quarter of 2006.

Seventy jobs will be eliminated no later than mid-March from the plant near the Stockton Metropolitan Airport.

"We had hoped that actions we took during the course of the year would enable us to keep the operation going, but further studies and analyses made it apparent that to try to do so would be economically impractical," IRIS chairman Akihiro Ohyama said in a news release.

The Stockton plant, which manufactures home and office storage products sold through major retailers, has three strikes against it: aging equipment, insufficient production space and inadequate warehouse capacity, continually requiring the company to purchase costly outside storage.

Additionally, the company's client base in the Western states has shifted.

"We feel we can just as effectively, and more cost efficiently, service our customers in those states from our headquarters facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., and our Mesquite, Texas, operation," said Chet Keizer, IRIS president.

At the same time IRIS is hoping to sell the Stockton plant at 3021 Boeing Way, the company is making substantial investments in enlarging its other facilities.

Steve Carrigan, economic development director for Stockton, was philosophical about IRIS' decision to exit Stockton.

"While it's unfortunate that IRIS will not be staying here, its departure opens up an opportunity for another company to come into our area," he said.

IRIS recently expanded its Wisconsin warehouse by nearly a quarter-million square feet and plans to increase the size of its Texas warehouse by summer 2006.

Ohyama and Keizer jointly announced the closure in meetings Friday with the facility's 70 employees.

Monday, IRIS issued WARN notices to state and federal agencies and to 35 production workers, whose jobs will end by Jan. 20, said Dick Konsinowski, corporate director of human resources for IRIS.

Distribution employees and office personnel will be among the last workers to be separated, with complete closure of the plant expected between mid-February and mid-March.

Several employees have been asked to consider relocating to one of the other IRIS facilities, Konsinowski said.

The remaining workers will be offered employment assistance by local job service agencies.

"We'll do whatever we can to make the transition as pleasant as possible, although it's never pleasant," Konsinowski said.

Japan-based IRIS first began to market products in the United States in 1994, with production beginning in Stockton in 1995.

The next year, the company opened its Wisconsin headquarters facility, and in 2002, the Texas plant.

Product currently being manufactured in the United States also include pet accessories such as cages and clothing.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Record, Stockton, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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BA, 7661,

Source: The Record

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