YELLVILLE — Notification was waiting for Yellville officials who returned to work Tuesday of a plan to close down an electronics manufacturing facility in May, Mayor Janell Kirkwood said.
The plant, currently employing 57 Yellville workers, is to be moved overseas, according to a March quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
More than 100 were employed at SLM Electronics before it was acquired by Loud Technologies in March 2005, said Human Resources Manager Cathy Ambry.
Three stages of staff reductions are scheduled for the early part of 2007, Ambry said. Only two employees will be used at the plant in May before it closes entirely, she said.
The plant has produced music equipment including guitar amplifiers, speaker cabinets and accessories such as guitar effects pedals for St. Louis Music since it opened in 1994, Ambry said. St. Louis Music merged with Loud Technologies in 2005.
Employees at the plant previously told The Bulletin that they heard about the new ownership's plan for removing the work from Yellville in the summer of 2005.
Ambry said plant employees would be given severance packages. She said she has worked to get the employees training with help from a governor's task force for displaced workers. Classes offered at the plant have helped some employees toward earning General Educational Development (GED) certification, she said.
"If time allows, I am going to try to set up a job fair on location," Ambry said.
A distribution center for the music equipment in Flippin also may be affected by the restructuring, she said.
Meanwhile, Gerald Hammon of Rocking Chair Realty in Flippin, has been working to find a buyer for the property who can benefit the local economy. Hammon is a North Central Arkansas Regional Economic Development (NCARED) board member. He said NCARED also was involved in finding a business to move in behind the closing plant.
Hammon said the site of the plant, off State Highway 202 and near rail lines in Yellville's industrial park, makes it potentially useful to many different business types. A call center, research and development site or distribution facility are some of the potential uses, he said.
"We're trying to approach this from every possible angle to be successful with this," Hammon said. "I think we will be."
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