Deere laying off 220 at Illinois plant amid machinery sales slump
by Canadian Manufacturing.com Staff
Deere digs in and trims costs with 7 per cent sales decline on horizon
Deere said the cuts will take effect Feb. 15 of next year. PHOTO: Bahnfrend, via Wikimedia Commons
MOLINE, Ill.—Facing an agricultural machinery sales slump, Deere & Company is cutting jobs at its Seeding and Cylinder plant in Moline, Illinois.
The company has announced it will place 220 of the plant’s workers on indefinite layoff as of Feb. 15 of next year. The company said the action was taken to “align the size of the manufacturing workforce at individual factories with market demand for products made at each specific location.”
Last week the tractor and other heavy equipment maker forecast a 7 per cent sales decline for 2016.
“Although our forecast calls for lower results in the year ahead, the outlook represents a level of performance that is considerably better than we have experienced in previous downturns,” the company’s chairman and CEO, Samuel Allen said. “This shows the continuing success of our efforts to establish a more durable business model and a wider range of revenue sources.”
The company said that while in the past employee’s at its Seeding and Cylinder plant have experienced seasonal layoffs in the spring and returned to work in the fall, the company’s Nov. 30 announcement is an indefinite layoff with no specific call-back date.
