The Associated Press
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Wheeled Coach plans to close its Yoder-area ambulance manufacturing plant by the end of April, costing Hutchinson about 140 jobs.
Collins, which also makes school buses and other specialty vehicles at a half-dozen plants nationally, said Monday it was moving all ambulance production to a plant in Orlando, Fla.
About half the employees may be offered jobs at the Collins Bus plant in south Hutchinson, which will be getting ready for its summer production cycle about the same time as the closing, said Collins Industries President Randall Swift.
Hutchinson employees will also be given a chance to move to the Florida plant, Swift said.
Wheeled Coach and Collins Bus are both subsidiaries of Hutchinson-based Collins Industries, which was acquired last year by private investors and is now a subsidiary of BNS Holding Inc. Collins Industries was founded in Hutchinson by Don Collins Sr. in 1972.
The plant has a $4.4 million annual payroll.
“It is a blow,” said Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce President Dave Kerr. “We felt like we had some momentum going with three straight good developments. This does set us back a little. The best thing is they think they can absorb perhaps 65 people into their bus division.”
Swift said the new owners decided that ambulance production, while experiencing positive growth, has remained relatively flat and did not appear to be poised for significant growth in the foreseeable future.
Wheeled Coach is the world’s leading ambulance manufacturer but its plants in Reno County and Orlando were both operating a single shift at 40 to 50 percent of production capacity, Swift said. The Hutchinson plant is the satellite production facility, while all primary support groups such as purchasing and engineering are in Orlando, he said.
“The result of this analysis was that we needed to close the Hutchinson plant and consolidate production at the Florida facility,” Swift said.
The company notified workers at both the ambulance and bus plants of the layoffs early Monday. Employees were allowed a paid day off after the announcements.
Federal law requires that employees and the city be given 60 days’ notice of a large layoff or plant closing.
The plant will begin reducing its production in about two weeks, with an April 30 closing date.
Collins Bus employs 108 people, after about 20 people were laid off in mid-November in what officials called a seasonal layoff.
The Wheeled Coach plant encompasses 10 buildings on about 32 acres. The company is exploring options for the nearly 209,000 square feet of production space, Swift said.
Collins Industries employs about 1,000 people at plants in five states.