Thursday, Jul. 24, 2008

Hi-Stat plant to close by year's end

Hi-Stat, a local manufacturer of automotive sensors and switches, is still on schedule to close operations here by the end of the year.

A total of 258 workers remain at the plant off U.S. Highway 301, which is 36 fewer employees than were at Hi-Stat at the start of the year, said Roger Cyr, vice president of organizational development for Hi-Stat. In 2003, the company employed around 400 people.

All of the workers will lose their jobs at the local facility; though, some may be offered positions out of the area, company officials have said.

As of Wednesday, about 10 employees had accepted positions in Ohio, Cyr said.

The shutting of the Manatee County plant was the result of cost-cutting measures on the part of Hi-Stat's parent company, Warren, Ohio-based Stoneridge Inc. Stoneridge also is ceasing its manufacturing operations at a plant in the United Kingdom.

Stoneridge announced last year that it was moving manufacturing operations to places like China, Mexico and Estonia to save on costs.

"Our project is on task and we're on our timeline, so it's progressing as we planned," Cyr said. "I would expect we'd be out of there (Manatee County) by the fourth quarter." Plant officials expect to eventually sell the facility.

Stoneridge expects to incur $9 million to $13 million in pre-tax charges in termination benefits and costs related to transferring production lines, according to the company's most recent quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in March.

Stoneridge had net sales of $203 million for the first quarter of this year, compared to $185 million during the same period in 2007.

Net income for the first quarter was $6.5 million, compared to $4.9 million during the first quarter of 2007.

The company said income was favorably affected during the first quarter by foreign currency translation and strong electronics sales in North America and Europe.