About 69 people will lose their jobs when North Carolina-based Ingersoll Rand, an industrial machinery manufacturer, closes its Kent location by the end of May.
“The Kent facility will close May 31,” said Matthew Fort, a company spokesperson, in a March 15 email. “It primarily produces material lifting and handling equipment and is part of our Power Tools and Lifting business.”
About 69 people will be affected, according to the Washington state Employment Security Department’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN). Fort said it impacts approximately 62 jobs.
“The move allows us to consolidate our Power Tools and Lifting manufacturing operations to other Ingersoll Rand manufacturing plants that focus on these products, which allows us to maximize production efficiencies and better support the continued growth we are seeing in this business,” Fort said. “This move will also allow manufacturing to occur within the same region where customers and distributors of these products are located, which improves costs and customer delivery times.”
The Kent facility is at 20121 72nd Ave. S. Ingersoll Rand has 66 service locations across the nation, according to its website, including six in Texas and five in California.
In January, all impacted employees were notified of the closing to ensure they have time to pursue other jobs inside or outside of Ingersoll Rand, Fort said.
Each impacted employee that stays through the end of operations will receive a severance package consummate with his/her role and tenure, as well as outplacement services to assist with resume creation and job searches, Fort said.
In April, local employers will be invited into the Kent plant to conduct interviews with employees to assist in the job search before their last day with Ingersoll Rand, Fort said.
Staff from the state Employment Security Department’s local rapid response team and WorkSource center will perform outreach to employees of the organization to ease the transition.
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