Headline: Franklin County [Pennsylvania] Company Announces Layoffs

Source: Carlisle [PA] Sentinel, 9 Sept 2000

Note: the inefficiencies that we are suffering in our production operations (Why? No reason givencould this be Y2K related? Embedded chips? Supply chain/delivery problems?)

Education and Fair Use EXCERPTS (sorry, I have no link, this is hand-typed, but try www.cumberlink.com):

Grove Worldwide, headquartered in Shady Grove, Franklin County, announced Friday that it laid off 10 percent of its local workforce. About 260 employees of the approximately 2,500 employees working at Shady Grove got pink slips.

Company officials called the layoffs permanent. They affect employees in all sections of the company and end a reduced work schedule implemented Aug. 14 Poor third quarter earnings paved the way for the layoffs. "Our Manlift business will have a significant loss this year," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Bust noted. "Our third quarter earnings were released on Aug. 16. As expected, our poor financial performance disappointed our lenders."

Simmons attributed the financial performance to the "poor performance of the aerial work platform business (Manlift) and the inefficiencies that we are suffering in our production operations. We are working very hard to improve both of those issues."

Bust said Grove is exploring opportunities to partner with other aerial work platform manufacturers as well as looking at what other actions are necessary to make Manlift a profitable business through lower production volumes, reducing sales, engineering and administrative costs and possibly downsizing the product line.

Founded in 1947 in Shady Grove, the company produces mobile hydraulic cranes and aerial work platforms. Grove was acquired by Keystone Inc. and partners in 1998. Products are marketed in more than 125 countries as Grove Crane, National Crane and Grove Manlift.

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), September 11, 2000

Answers

May be an industry-wide slump in demand.2 companies in St Joseph Mo.,Snorkel and HiJacker, went thru similar downsizing/restructuring about a year ago.They both made similar portable lift work platforms.

-- Sam (wtrmkr52@aol.com), September 11, 2000.

Sam, I agree that the overall industry is having a slump (soon to be followed by the economy as a whole!?) ...although there is another mechanical platform manufacturer, I think the name is "JLG Industries", that seems to be doing well enough to have opened a large new facility this year outside Shippensburg PA (near where I live).

What caught my eye was the comment about "inefficiencies that we are suffering in our production operations". Are those code words for Y2K- related computer or embedded chip problems??? I don't know, but it sure is suspicious.

One might expect that a healthy company in a healthy industry would be more likely to survive such problems. I think of it as Y2K as the "straw that broke the camel's back" theory.

A final note about the company in the news item, Grove Worldwide: the local radio this morning said Grove has employees commuting to Franklin County PA from three states (Pennsylvania obviously, but also West Virginia and Maryland), so this layoff is hitting families across a wide area.

And so it begins...

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), September 12, 2000.