Cyclone Jake
Bronze Member
TELFORD, Tenn. -- Nearly 150 local factory workers will lose their jobs by July 14, and if the owners of Bush Hog LLC can't sell the company's Telford plant those jobs will be lost permanently.
That's the message from a "WARN Act" letter to local elected officials, which also notes that even if CC Industries manages to sell the 6-year-old plant a buyer will have "the right to select which of the Company's employees, if any, it retains..."
The 1988 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires companies to inform local governments of pending mass layoffs.
The May 12 letter from Bush Hog President Duane Prentice officially puts the fate of Bush Hog's workers -- who produce front-end loaders, zero-turn mowers and backhoes -- in the hands of a potential buyer. Bush Hog's headquarters are in Selma, Ala., and its Chicago-based owners first announced in January they are looking to sell the company as a whole or in parts.
"Bush Hog ... is currently in negotiations with several potential buyers for the sale of all or parts of Bush Hog LLC (and) is also in negotiations with several entities regarding the sale and/or leasing of the Company's facility located at 101 Bush Hog Blvd., Telford..."
Washington County Mayor George Jaynes, who was instrumental in bringing Bush Hog to the Washington County Industrial Park early this decade, sounded a philosophical tone about the situation Monday.
"It's sad to see it come about, but everything is on supply and demand," Jaynes said. "You have to have customers to be able to buy."
CC Industries is an offshoot of Henry Crown and Co. and is run by William H. Crown, a scion of Henry Crown (1896-1990), a Chicagoan who made his fortune in the mid-20th century and whose family wealth is in the billions of dollars. Selma is where the original rotary cutters that spawned the company were invented and developed by local entrepreneurs more than 50 years ago.
Jaynes said he spoke to William Crown about a month ago "and he had some prospects."
Jonesborough Mayor Kelly Wolfe said a potential closure isn't surprising considering the state of the overall economy, but added that he is hopeful about the Industrial Park's prospects regardless of the short-term outcome.
If another company doesn't step in by June 30, Wolfe said, local leaders and the Economic Development Board will have an impressive facility to market themselves.
"To some extent we're bystanders right now, but we're taking every opportunity to promote a better outcome," Wolfe said.
"The bottom line is that it's an excellent facility, and everyone Bush Hog is talking to ... will be a target for us if they do decide to close down."
Bush Hog receives tax abatements on the property and building, and so the county's Industrial Bond Board officially owns it. This would allow the county to market it if Bush Hog can't sell it.
In early January, when Bush Hog furloughed local workers, Prentice announced the possibility of a sale and said sales efforts would include "reducing the amount of working capital invested in the business." Later that month, workers learned they would return to work in February, and Prentice wrote that Bush Hog "will continue to be the market leader in rotary cutters and other agricultural implements," sale or no sale.
Bush Hog opened its 330,000-square-foot Telford plant in 2002, and company officials said then it could employ 450 people at full capacity.
Source: Johnson City Press
Farm Equipment News
That's the message from a "WARN Act" letter to local elected officials, which also notes that even if CC Industries manages to sell the 6-year-old plant a buyer will have "the right to select which of the Company's employees, if any, it retains..."
The 1988 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires companies to inform local governments of pending mass layoffs.
The May 12 letter from Bush Hog President Duane Prentice officially puts the fate of Bush Hog's workers -- who produce front-end loaders, zero-turn mowers and backhoes -- in the hands of a potential buyer. Bush Hog's headquarters are in Selma, Ala., and its Chicago-based owners first announced in January they are looking to sell the company as a whole or in parts.
"Bush Hog ... is currently in negotiations with several potential buyers for the sale of all or parts of Bush Hog LLC (and) is also in negotiations with several entities regarding the sale and/or leasing of the Company's facility located at 101 Bush Hog Blvd., Telford..."
Washington County Mayor George Jaynes, who was instrumental in bringing Bush Hog to the Washington County Industrial Park early this decade, sounded a philosophical tone about the situation Monday.
"It's sad to see it come about, but everything is on supply and demand," Jaynes said. "You have to have customers to be able to buy."
CC Industries is an offshoot of Henry Crown and Co. and is run by William H. Crown, a scion of Henry Crown (1896-1990), a Chicagoan who made his fortune in the mid-20th century and whose family wealth is in the billions of dollars. Selma is where the original rotary cutters that spawned the company were invented and developed by local entrepreneurs more than 50 years ago.
Jaynes said he spoke to William Crown about a month ago "and he had some prospects."
Jonesborough Mayor Kelly Wolfe said a potential closure isn't surprising considering the state of the overall economy, but added that he is hopeful about the Industrial Park's prospects regardless of the short-term outcome.
If another company doesn't step in by June 30, Wolfe said, local leaders and the Economic Development Board will have an impressive facility to market themselves.
"To some extent we're bystanders right now, but we're taking every opportunity to promote a better outcome," Wolfe said.
"The bottom line is that it's an excellent facility, and everyone Bush Hog is talking to ... will be a target for us if they do decide to close down."
Bush Hog receives tax abatements on the property and building, and so the county's Industrial Bond Board officially owns it. This would allow the county to market it if Bush Hog can't sell it.
In early January, when Bush Hog furloughed local workers, Prentice announced the possibility of a sale and said sales efforts would include "reducing the amount of working capital invested in the business." Later that month, workers learned they would return to work in February, and Prentice wrote that Bush Hog "will continue to be the market leader in rotary cutters and other agricultural implements," sale or no sale.
Bush Hog opened its 330,000-square-foot Telford plant in 2002, and company officials said then it could employ 450 people at full capacity.
Source: Johnson City Press
Farm Equipment News
