Friday, June 30, 2006

O'Sullivan Industries to hire 150 in Lamar

Production at the O'Sullivan Industries plant in South Boston, Va., will be closed and moved to Lamar, company officials announced today. The Virginia facility will close by the end of the calendar year.
The move will mean the hiring of 150 workers at the Lamar plant over the next 12 months.
The closure is designed to improve "operational efficiency," company officials said in a news release.
President and CEO Rick Walters said, "The closure of our South Boston facility is consistent with our strategic plans. O'Sullivan will continue to serve our customers' long-term needs from our Lamar, Missouri facility; which has the capability currently in place to manufacture and distribute all of our product categories. We are working with the customers served from our Virginia plant to execute a smooth and efficient transition. This has been a difficult but necessary decision for us. We determined that this was the most effective course of action to
align our available capacity with the market, and to make our total cost structure more competitive. The closure is a result of industry wide excess capacity and is not a reflection on the workforce or management team in South Boston. In fact, the plant has demonstrated continuous improvement operationally and is consistently meeting customer quality and delivery requirements. However, there is an immediate need to improve capacity utilization and optimize overall company performance."
O'Sullivan officials are meeting today with plant employees to discuss
closure plans, the news release said.
The officials were told about the company's decision today, the news release indicated.

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