Third Coast In The News

Hart & Cooley leaving early, Editorial, The Holland Sentinel , Holland, Michigan, March 23, 2007

Production at plant will end Sept. 20

Managers at Hart & Cooley have told the 250 workers remaining at the Eighth Street facility that production will halt at the plant Sept. 20.

Randy Kirby, a spokesman for Hart & Cooley in Holland Township, said about 70 workers have been laid off since the longtime area employer announced in May it would be relocating its manufacturing operations out of state and its headquarters to Cascade Township near Grand Rapids.

Kirby said about 30 people were let go in January and there likely will be another round of layoffs before the final shutdown.

"We moved (the closing) up from the end of October to Sept. 20," Kirby said. "Previously we said we might be here until the end of June 2008, but things have become clearer in the industry. The housing market has dropped about 17 percent, and we're in the residential products market."

The company makes residential heating, cooling and ventilation components, such as metal registers and ducts. The company was founded in 1901 and began manufacturing in the Holland area in 1924. In 1999, Hart & Cooley was purchased by Tomkins PLC of London. The Holland Township plant covers about 685,700 square feet and now is owned by Third Coast Development, a Grand Rapids-area real estate investment firm.

Pete Jazdzyk, of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 1418, which represents the employees at 500 E. Eighth St., said workers were notified Thursday of the latest change.

"It's been a moving date all along," he said. "But that's not much of a surprise."

Kirby said most of the work that remains in Holland Township will move to plant in Olive Branch, Miss. He said Hart & Cooley likely will begin outsourcing some of its labor-intensive work from somewhere in Asia, which can reduce costs on the end product up to 20 percent.

"I talked to the (union) bargaining team recently and told them we can stay here and die a slow death or a fast death, or we can move ourselves to where we have more opportunity and get a chance to compete," Kirby said. "Like it or not, that's just the way it is.

"The important thing is that we're not going to another state with our headquarters. We're staying here where our highly trained and skilled workforce is. We have to and we want to," he said.

By Patrick Revere, Business Editor