LITTLE ROCK — A Fort Smith official said Tuesday he is hopeful that the 140 employees of Federal Coach will quickly find new work after their jobs are eliminated between March and June.
Ray Gosack, the deputy city administrator, said the workers who make specialty buses, funeral coaches and limousines at the factory are highly skilled. News of the plant closure came Sunday, after city officials were notified of the job eliminations in a Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter addressed to the city’s mayor.
The first layoff at the plant at 7400 S. 28th St. will take place around March 12. Twenty-four salaried positions are included in the 140 jobs. Federal Coach is owned by Houston-based J.B. Poindexter & Co.
In the Dec. 11 letter to the mayor, an official representing Federal Coach’s owners blamed a significant downturn in business for the departure of Federal Coach’s hearse manufacturing line to a plant in Amelia, Ohio, where J.B. Poindexter’s other funeral coach manufacturer, Eagle Coach Co., is located.
The corporate parent plans to sell the bus line to Starcraft, a Goshen, Ind.-based company.
Gosack said it’s a good thing that other Forth Smith businesses are adding jobs. Unemployment in Fort Smith metropolitan statistical area reached 7.8 percent in October, compared with 4.8 percent in the same period a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“We’re fortunate that Whirlpool Corp. and Rheem are recalling workers or have recalled laid-off workers,” Gosack said. “But it’s still a concern when you have a longtime company in our community close its doors.” Whirlpool has a big refrigerator factory in the city, while Rheem makes heating and cooling units.
Funeral coach and limousine manufacturing dates back 100 years in Fort Smith’s history, according to Federal Coach. The city boasts that it is the home of the first sixdoor limousine.
Federal Coach this year had already seen its work force trimmed, despite reports that the business was weathering a down economy.
In March, the specialty vehicle maker reduced its work force by about 20 percent, or 42 line positions, because of a drop-off in demand. At its peak the company employed 260 people.
J.B. Poindexter acquired Federal Coach from Mercury Capital for $12.6 million in December 2005. The purchase at the time was touted as having potential to grow Federal Coach sales. Just a month later, J.B. Poindexter bought Federal Coach competitor Eagle Coach.
Formal notice of Federal Coach’s pending closure had yet to reach Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce officials Tuesday.
Paul Harvel, the chamber president, said Federal Coach had not confirmed its status “one way or another.”
“Officially, they’ve not told us one thing,” he said.
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Business, Pages 23 on 12/23/2009