Missouri turbine facility to close

80 in Neosho set to lose jobs in ’15

Premier Turbines, an operation that overhauls helicopter engines, will close its plant in Neosho, Mo., early next year, leaving about 80 workers without jobs as its parent company shifts operations to Texas.

Chris Pratt, director of communications for Texas-based DallasAirmotive, which owns Premier Turbines, said Friday that both administrative and production jobs will be lost. He said the plant will close sometime during the first quarter of 2015.

Pratt said the company hopes to offer some jobs at its Dallas operations but is still in negotiations with the United Auto Workers union, which represents some of the plant employees, so a firm agreement has not been reached. Attempts to contact a representative of the union were not successful Friday afternoon.

DallasAirmotive is owned by BBA Aviation, a worldwide aviation support and aftermarket service company. It operates in 220 locations on five continents, according to its website. In May, DallasAirmotive said it would consolidate portions of its turbine engine repair and overhaul activities and build a test facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Premier Turbines repairs and overhauls turbine engines and accessories for business, general aviation and the military, according to its website. The Neosho plant was a leading facility for the maintenance, overhaul and repair of Rolls-Royce M250 helicopter engines. Premier Turbines has operated the Neosho plant since 2003 when it purchased it from Saberliner of St. Louis.

Neosho, with a population near 12,000, is part of the Joplin Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Jasper and Newton counties in Missouri and Ottawa County in Oklahoma.

According to the Department of Labor Statistics, the area had a preliminary unemployment rate of 5 percent for April, down from 5.3 percent for the same period last year. The unemployment rate for Missouri in April was 5.9 percent, down from 6.1 percent for the same period in 2013.

The labor force for the Joplin Metropolitan Statistical Area was 86,278 for April, down form 86,631 in April 2013.

Michael Franks, CEO of the Neosho Area Business and Industrial Foundation, said Friday that losing 80 good-paying jobs would be difficult, but he said the facility would be marketable and that he hoped another business could be recruited to move in. About 80 percent of the new industry that has moved to Neosho has occupied an existing building, Franks said.

"The facility is marketable," he said.

He said the plant has high ceilings and has been occupied since it was first built in the 1950s as an Air Force facility to manufacture rocket engines.

Pratt said it was premature to discuss selling the building, but all of the company's options are being considered.

Business on 06/28/2014

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