About 250 workers will lose their jobs by the time the Precision Industries die-casting plant in Malvern closes permanently in mid- to late December.
The decision to shutter the plant was "based on a number of factors, including the fact that it has been losing money, margins have been eroded by global competition and there have been inefficiencies we have been unable to overcome," said the plant owner, Leggett & Platt Inc., in a fax on Friday.
The plant is one of the five largest employers in Malvern, Mayor Steve Northcutt said, and the layoff is the biggest in the city he could recall in recent years. Malvern in 2006 had a population of 9,046, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
For more information see today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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