Ironwood Plastics Lay-Offs Explained

 

IRONWOOD, MI - Thursday, October 23, 2008 - The Chronicle has received many emails and telephone calls regarding rumored lay-offs at Ironwood Plastics. We contacted Mr. Scott D. Stephens, Co-President of the company located a 1235 Wall Street, to hear his side of the story.

"We are most certainly in the midst of a distinct downturn," Stephens explained, "Especially with our automotive related customers. In July, we saw an abrupt decline in sales and in early October it became clear that this slow down is likely continue at least through the end of 2008. We were forced to respond by laying off a significant number of our employees. This was very difficult to do – we have let some excellent people go and yet we know that sales will turn around and we will want them back."

The 60,210 foot state-of-the art facility located in Ironwood's industrial park regularly employs over 210 people. It has been one of the community's largest employers since it first located here back in 1979.

"The question we are often asked is, 'How long?'" Stephens continued, "The honest answer is that we really can't say. The global economy is reeling from conditions that have never been seen before and even the world's top economic analysts can't answer the question. However, we expect our slowdown to last at least until the end of 2008. Simultaneously, we have seen a jump in prices for our plastic materials (a petroleum-based product), power costs, and in shipping. We are feeling the same 'squeeze' that consumers are feeling."

The company was founded by Mr. Gordon Stephens. He chose to locate his company in Ironwood for several reasons - being a native of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, he knew the caliber of people in the area and the love these people had for their homeland. He knew this community took pride in their work and would be committed to the organization.

After Gordon Stephens retired in 1999, the second generation of Stephens (Gordon's three sons) now manage daily operations at Ironwood Plastics. The company and the Stephens family are forever doing all they can to "give back" to the community. When we spoke with Mr. Stephens this afternoon, it was apparent that the lay-offs deeply troubled him.

But, not all of the news is bad!

According to Stephens, "In early to mid 2009, we have several new projects coming on line for customers not related to the automotive sector, so we are confident that our situation significantly improves by mid 2009 at the latest. And, being debt-free, we are in a good position to weather the economic storm and simply need to manage our business to operate at a break-even level until economic conditions improve. In fact, in addition to bringing many people back to work, we expect to be hiring for several key managerial and technical positions by late 2009. In a nutshell: Short Term is bad, but long term is positive!"