Rheem Announces Job Layoffs

By Tara Muck

TIMES RECORD • TMUCK@SWTIMES.COM

Rheem Heating and Cooling Division announced late Thursday that it will lay off 125 workers at its Fort Smith plant effective Nov. 26, according to a news release.

The layoff comes on the heels of a previously announced temporary layoff that will affect nearly all of the 1,225 workers at the plant. Earlier this month, Ed Raniszeski, the division’s director of market development and communications, said the facility will shut down its operations during the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays.

Raniszeski could not be reached for comment late Thursday to clarify the difference between the two layoffs.

The latest layoff will affect second-shift employees who assemble gas furnaces for Rheem. The Fort Smith plant manufactures residential and commercial heating and cooling products for the Atlanta-based company.

According to the news release, “The continued downturn in the nation’s housing industry coupled with unseasonably warm weather has resulted in an untenable inventory build up of gas furnace supplies.”

In an earlier interview regarding the temporary layoff, Raniszeski said by the time the weather turns cold, most of the furnaces have already been built for the first major wave on the market.

“A lot of times people don’t realize we begin building air conditioning products right after the first of the year,” Raniszeski said.

But the housing market slump has caused low sales figures for the company’s heating and cooling division, which has caused inventory to build up. To lower inventory, Rheem planned its first layoff over the holidays, of which six days would be paid holidays.

While both layoffs begin at the same time, whether that shift will return this year is yet to be learned.

Jeff Hammond, an analyst with Key Banc Capital Markets in Cleveland, Ohio, told the Times Record earlier this month that extended production shut downs in the heating and air industry are happening nationwide in the fourth quarter.

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