Whirlpool Corp. has announced plans to close its 1.7 million-s.f. manufacturing facility in Evansville, Ind., where it has had a presence for 53 years.
The closure, which is being attributed to global economic conditions and a decreased demand for the top-freezer refrigerators that the Evansville plant produces, is slated to be complete by the middle of next year and will eliminate approximately 1,100 full-time positions.
Production of the plant’s top-freezer refrigerators will be transferred to one of the company’s existing manufacturing facilities in Mexico, while production of icemakers produced in Evansville will be relocated to a company-owned site that has yet to be determined.
The company’s Refrigeration Product Development Center, which has approximately 300 employees, will remain in Evansville.
“This was a difficult but necessary decision,” said Whirlpool Vice President Al Holaday. “To reduce excess capacity and improve costs, the decision was made to consolidate production within our existing North American manufacturing facilities. This will allow us to streamline our operations, improve our capacity utilization, reduce product overlap between plants, and meet future production requirements.
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