Invista to lay off 400 people at Delaware nylon plant
The company said Tuesday the job eliminations come as part of a restructuring at the 69-year-old plant -- opened by DuPont in 1939 -- to move away from making a type of carpet fiber that has fallen out of favor with consumers.
The company said it will instead focus on making a type of industrial fiber used in military apparel and for conveyer belts used in paper manufacturing, a part of the business that has been more successful.
Nikki Boone, a spokeswoman for the Delaware Economic Development Office, said her agency will work with the state Department of Labor to assist displaced workers.
The layoffs, which were announced to workers Tuesday, won't start until the first quarter of next year, said Roger Ramseyer, an Invista spokesman.
The company is making the announcement now "to give the employees that may be affected and the community as much notice as possible," he said.
Workers approached outside the plant Tuesday declined to comment. Most said they didn't know about the layoff plans or didn't want to discuss them.
At a city council meeting Tuesday night, Vice Mayor J. Rhea Shannon said city officials had not been briefed by the company and only heard the news as word trickled out of the plant at about 4:30 p.m.
"With the economy like it is, you just don't know," Shannon said, adding that the city will have more to say today.
Councilwoman Leanne Phillips-Lowe also knew few details.
"Everybody knows somebody who works there. Losing a business that size in your community is very troubling," she said.
"The historic part is kind of sad. It's been part of our community for so long."
Ironically, the city Tuesday night unveiled its new Web site that includes a video on economic development that touts Seaford as the "nylon capital of the world." It also includes the statement, "Business is good in Seaford."
The plant, one of the iconic sites of Delaware manufacturing, has a long history since DuPont opened it as the world's first nylon plant. In the 1980s, as many as 4,600 people worked there.
Employment had fallen to about 650 by the time privately held Koch Industries Inc. of Wichita, Kan., Invista's corporate parent, acquired the plant in 2004 in its purchase of DuPont's fibers and textile business for $4.2 billion.
Ramseyer said Invista plans to work with DEDO to try find a tenant to share the plant with Invista since the company won't need the entire space after it reduces its work force. The plant occupies 35 acres of the 648-acre property.
"It ought to be a very attractive location for a manufacturing business to co-locate with us," Ramseyer said.
The company plans to bargain with the Seaford Nylon Employees Council, which represents workers at the plant, over which of the 500 workers will lose their jobs, and over severance, Ramseyer said.
Company officials plan to move ahead with a planned conversion of the plant to natural gas from coal, which will cost more than $15 million when it is completed next year, Ramseyer said.
The company will drop plans to construct a new natural gas pipeline through the city of Seaford, and instead use an existing, smaller line.
Ramseyer said the layoffs in Seaford will have no impact on Invista's other Delaware operations -- a research and development lab in Newark and the corporate headquarters for Invista's apparel division and other corporate functions in Wilmington. Those two locations combined employ 280 people, excluding contractors, he said.
Higher energy and raw material costs, as well as changing consumer preferences, caused Invista to "reinvent the plant in order to make it successful for the long term," Ramseyer sai
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