A 50-employee Maytag Corp. warehouse here will remain open until mid-February, delaying the last phase of the refrigerator maker’s pullout from Galesburg by about six weeks, the company announced.
Maytag had planned to shutter the distribution center by the end of the year, but slower-than-expected construction of a new warehouse in Iowa will keep the Galesburg facility open until Feb. 11, company spokeswoman Lynne Dragomier said.
Dragomier said the Iowa-based appliance maker remains on target to close its Galesburg production plant in September, but no date has been set.
Maytag originally planned to end production of side-by-side refrigerators in Galesburg in September, but continue production of top-mount models until November. The company moved up the shutdown in May, saying market demand for top-mount refrigerators had sagged.
The area’s largest employer, Maytag had nearly 1,600 local workers when the company announced plans to close its Galesburg facilities in October 2002. Layoffs have since pared the work force to about 1,000, Dragomier said.
Maytag said the Galesburg plant was no longer ”competitively viable” after competitors began cutting costs by moving production to Mexico. The company will shift production from Galesburg to a plant in Amana, Iowa, and a new facility in Reynosa, Mexico.
Closing of the Galesburg warehouse was moved back until a new facility opens in North Liberty, Iowa, Dragomier said. The new warehouse is within 25 miles of Maytag’s Amana refrigerator plant and 85 miles from a plant that makes washers and driers in Newton, Iowa.
Along with Maytag, Galesburg also will lose a plant that makes pre-engineered buildings by the end of the year, eliminating about 300 jobs.
Australia-based BlueScope Steel, which bought Butler Manufacturing in April, said the Galesburg plant was too costly to operate.
From Canton Daily Ledger