Will Maytag’s new owners close the Jackson plant?
Will there be layoffs?
Will the status quo remain?
Those are a few of the questions being asked at Maytag’s Jackson Dishwashing Products plant on U.S. 70 since Thursday’s announcement that Ripplewood Holdings LLC would pay $1.13 billion in cash to acquire Maytag, making it a privately held company.
”Everybody’s just tired of hanging around waiting for the news,” said Danita Person on Monday. She is one of nearly 600 local Maytag employees and has worked there for three years. ”We don’t really talk about it that much. If you do a lot of talking, rumors get started. So we’d just rather wait to see what happens.”
Ripplewood’s purchase of Maytag must still meet shareholder and regulatory approval, which is not expected until later this year.
While Jackson workers and area officials await the final word of the acquisition, New York and Tokyo-based Ripplewood Holdings’ founder Tim Collins was at Maytag’s Newton, Iowa, headquarters last week, ”making it clear he wants the headquarters to remain in Newton.”
Collins said he wanted to improve Maytag’s research and development division so that it can become used ”as a platform to expand into international markets.” While no plant closings were mentioned at the meeting, one can only wait and see.
”As far as how this will affect everyone, it’s too early to tell,” said John Daggett, Maytag’s director of external communications.
But Jackson’s Dishwashing Products plant stands a good chance of remaining intact, if only because of the plant’s history:
# The Jackson plant is the lone producer of Maytag dishwashing products. Workers at the 557,000-square-foot production facility have manufactured more than 9 million Maytag, Amana, Magic Chef and Jeen-Air brand dishwashers since the plant’s inception in 1992.
# In October, the facility was named one of the nation’s 10 best production plants by IndustryWeek magazine.
# The plant also won the 2004 Shingo prize for excellence in manufacturing.
# Employee involvement in the company saved the Jackson plant $11 million in 2003.
Whatever changes are made, they will likely happen to Maytag’s laundry and floor care divisions, Daggett said.
”The Jackson, Tennessee, plant is not included in that,” he said. ”We are very happy with that facility.”
At one time, Maytag was the industry leader in household products, said David Van Amburg, managing director of the American Customer Satisfaction Index run by the University of Michigan. The index measures customer satisfaction of products and services ranging from the airline industry to appliances.
”In the late ’90s until 2000, Maytag held an industry score of 87, which is an all-time high,” Van Amburg said. ”It since has declined from 87 to 81, and … for the first time, it has a score that has dipped below the industry average. Whirlpool is now the leading company at 83.”
Maytag’s score is based on the 2004 survey. Maytag’s new score will be published sometime in August.
The decline in score is usually attributed to the decline in product quality, which is usually reflected in the company’s stock price. Since April 19, 2002, Maytag’s stock has fallen more than 80 percent from $47.94 to an April 29, 2005, low of $9.21, leaving the company ripe for a takeover, Van Amburg said.
While Jackson’s Maytag workers wait patiently for Collins’ final plan, area officials also are watching.
”Right now it is a good sign that those jobs are still here,” said Dawn Rutledge Jones, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. ”If anything happens that those jobs might leave, there are steps we will take to try and keep them here.”
She did not say what steps the department would take. ”We don’t know what concerns and issues will face us.”
In the meantime, Person – a mother of two – will keep working the door assembly line for Maytag’s dishwasher products as she and her co-workers await the final word from Collins.
”They say it’s supposed to be for the better of the company,” she said while on her lunch break.
”I’d like to see anything that’s good for the company, (because) there’s a lot of people working out there and if something bad happens there will be a lot of people without jobs.”
From The Jackson Sun