by Jeff Saunders
Reporter
Macedonia -- The downturn in the auto industry has trickled down and impacted local suppliers with lost sales and layoffs.
"Year to date, we are 50 percent down with employees," said Bill Johns, general manager of SET Enterprises' Highland Pointe Parkway plant. "And obviously, our sales are down by the same amount."
The facility, which opened in late 2005, makes the insides of fenders and doors before they are shipped to the Chrysler stamping plant in Twinsburg, the Ford plant in Walton Hills and Noble Metal Processing in Walton Hills.
Johns said that since orders began falling earlier this year, the Macedonia plant is down to 15 employees from about 30 it started the year with.
"As the volumes have dropped off, we've had to cut manpower -- and not just on the production floor, in the office, too," said Johns.
Overall, staffing at the company's five plants in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio has been cut in half to a little over 200 employees.
Johns declined to disclose sales figures, other than to say sales at the Macedonia plant are "less than the $6 million we were projecting."
The city suffered its first auto-industry related blow last spring, when Excello Engineered Systems went out of business and closed down its Bavaria Road plant, leaving 165 employees without work.
The company manufactured plastic shields placed inside car doors, and city Finance Director Steve Brunot said the city lost about $140,000 in income tax revenue.
In an April 21 letter to Mayor Don Kuchta, Kim Stevens of Excello's human services department said the shutdown was due to an "abrupt and unforeseen loss of business with the Ford Motor Company," one of the Excello's largest customers.
In early December, however, the city learned it may benefit from the auto industry's downturn when IER Fujikura, a manufacturer of rubber parts for valves, fuel pumps, magnetic wire coils, and other equipment, announced it may add up to 39 workers at its Bavaria Road headquarters next summer.
There are currently about 100 employees at the Macedonia facility, which opened in 1998.
John Markowitz, the company's chief operating officer, said the company was making the move because it is shutting down its Liverpool, Pa., plant and plans to move the plant's 39 positions to Macedonia.
Markowitz said IER Fujikura makes components for automotive fuel systems, as well as products for other industries, including the aerospace, chemical and electronics sectors.
Markowitz said the company is consolidating its operations to eliminate duplication of costs and increase efficiency in light of decreased revenue.
Both Markowitz and Johns said 2009 is going to be rough, as Markowitz said that the final number of positions to be added in Macedonia would depend on the state of the industry.
And while SET doesn't plan to shut down its 70,000-square-foot Macedonia facility, Johns said one of the Michigan plants will be closed in the next few months.
Johns said that if companies that are part of the auto industry are going to survive, they are going to have to "think outside the box." He said part of the problem is that the predictability that had long been a part of the industry no longer exists.
"Overall, the automotive industry has been taken to another place from where it's been in the past," said Johns. "There's guys we've dealt with who have been in the industry 40 years who have never seen anything like this."
E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3169