LAYOFFS HIT HOME (BUILDERS)
Monday, December 29th, 2008 -- 11:19 AM
A big sector of our local economy is getting hit especially hard, lately.Prefabricated and modular homes sales are way down in recent years.
In Marshfield, 70 Wick Building Systems employees were laid off last week. The company will close that plant in January and February?something they haven?t done before.
The plant manager says the company will reconfigure, hoping to increase efficiency.
Company CEO, Jeff Wick, told us back in October, things have been going south for a while.
"That market reached a peak in 1993," Wick said, "In 2008, our shipment of (mobile) homes, is going to be approximately 9% of what it was in 1993."
When sales were peaking, there were nearly 700 employees at the Marshfield plant; with the recent layoffs, the workforce is under 100.
Wick is hoping business will turn around as babyboomers who ?winter? in the southern states, turn to inexpensive modular homes for the summer months.
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