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Slumping sales temporarily close Saturn plants

27 February 2000

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. is suspending production this week at four manufacturing plants to reduce inventories as the automaker struggles with sluggish sales, the company said Saturday.

The temporary shutdowns are scheduled for Monday through Saturday at a plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., and Monday through Friday at plants in Wilmington, Del., which produce Saturn sedan and station wagon; Fairfax, Kan., which makes the Oldsmobile Intrigue and Pontiac Grand Prix, and St. Therese, Quebec, which builds the Pontiac Firebird and Chevrolet Camaro, GM said.

Production is scheduled to resume March 6. Hourly workers at the four plants will receive their normal pay without interruption during the shutdowns, with some of them staying on to perform maintenance, GM spokesman Brian Akre said.

Shutdowns for "inventory adjustment" -- or giving dealers time to sell cars already built, rather than accumulate more -- are not unusual but can't necessarily be predicted, Akre said.

"We build to demand, and demand has been light over the last couple of months," Saturn spokesman Bill Betts said.

The Spring Hill plant last suspended production in spring 1998 to adjust inventories.

Saturn executives have acknowledged they underestimated the competitiveness of the midsize car market. They've also had trouble getting the word out to customers that Saturn now makes a larger car.

Despite high-ranking customer service and loyalty, Saturn's overall sales rose by less than 1 percent in calendar 1999, even with the introduction of the Wilmington-built L-series mid-sized sedan and wagon.

Industrywide, car and light truck sales rose by more than 8 percent.

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-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 27, 2000

Answers

Hey Dee, Just a couple of meaningless and bizarre observations: 1) Where did all the Saturn commercials go? 2) I live in TN and remember when I worked as QA at a heat treating and electroplating plant. We were responsible for shutting Saturn down for a whole day because we weren't able to properly plate a very small part on time. This was over a year ago.

Amazing how such a fragile JIT economy is still running as well as it is.

-- canthappen (n@ysayer.com), February 27, 2000.

oops..never mind about (1. Just now saw one.

-- canthappen (n@ysayer.com), February 27, 2000.

LOL - Good timing for this shutdown. In the event there are leap year computer problems ...

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), February 27, 2000.

Thanks for your comments can'thappen and Cheryl.

I remember a thread about Saturn that was on here a week or so after rollover, but I don't know where it is now. Would like to refer back to it if we could find it.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 27, 2000.

Dee, you're not crazy. I remember seeing the same thread. If I have any time, I'll try to dig around for it.

-- Daisy Jane (deeekstrand@access1.com), February 28, 2000.

If gas prices keep rising at this rate, it will be interesting to see how Saturn's sales numbers fare later in the year.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), February 28, 2000.

Daisy, thank you.

Yes Tim, it will be interesting to see what happens as the year unfolds.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 28, 2000.

Ouch!

Course no "Headlines" right now.....it's not politically correct to bring up bad economic news right now.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), February 28, 2000.