Performance Fibers Reduces Salisbury Workforce by 20%

During the last week of January, US based fibre producer Performance Fibers announced it had laid off a fifth of the workforce at its Salisbury, North Carolina facility. The plant, which includes HMSL tyre yarn in its production portfolio, is one of the local area’s ten largest employers – although the precise number of employees affected by the layoffs is not known as Performance Fibers holds the size of its workforce at Salisbury confidential for competitive reasons.

“This reduction in the workforce is part of a year-long effort at Performance Fibers to right-size our manufacturing footprint to better align with the needs of our customers’ demands for our products,” said company spokesman Jay Pomeroy. “While some of these reductions were due to the economy, they are more tied to the long-term strategy of serving our customers and keeping our business profitable.”

Mr. Pomeroy added that the elimination of jobs in Salisbury was “in no way a reflection of the workforce in Salisbury,” describing the employees there as “excellent employees and workers.” About a quarter of those laid off volunteered to do so, and according to Pomeroy all redundant workers received severance packages linked to the length of their service with the company.

This is not the first round of layoffs to hit the company’s Salisbury facility. In April 2008 the company announced a production cutback at the plant, but did not disclose the number of jobs affected, and in November 44 contractor positions were eliminated.