
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 18, 1995                   TAG: 9502200031
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ACADIA TO LAY OFF 140 IRON GATE WORKERS

Acadia Polymers of Roanoke said Friday it gave layoff notices to more than half the employees at its Iron Gate rubber-parts plant this week as part of a companywide restructuring.

The layoffs are unrelated to the pending sale of the company, according to Bill Schumann, vice president of sales and marketing.

The firm announced in January that it had found a buyer and set a tentative date of March 31 to close the deal. The buyer was not named.

Acadia, which operates seven plants, this week told workers at the Alleghany County plant that during the next two months it will lay off 125 of its 250 hourly employees and about 15 of 40 salaried personnel, removing three of six production lines from the plant in near Clifton Forge.

The pending sale and restructuring ``aren't related,'' said Schumann. He said he would ``assume''the potential buyer agrees with the changes or would not have signed a letter of intent to buy Acadia.

The restructuring involves matching work more closely to the expertise and equipment at each plant. The Iron Gate plant will continue producing three lines of bonded rubber-to-metal parts, which ``have potential for a lot of growth,'' said Stewart Schofe, vice president of operations.

Manufacturing of industrial gaskets will be shifted to a plant in Nacogdoches, Texas; O-ring work will be shifted to Ligonier, Ind.; and a type of seal will be made in Chicago, Schofe said.

If Acadia's sales later demand that more of the goods be made at Iron Gate - seals for vehicle transmissions, copiers and printers - it would consider recalling some or all of the hourly employees given pink slips Tuesday, Schofe said.

``This is bad medicine for the Clifton Forge plant. But in the long term, it could be very good,'' Schofe said.

Meanwhile, the company has received assurances that Ford Motor Co. will continue to be a major customer. After buying Acadia products on yearly contracts for decades, Ford in December renewed its contract for three years, which represents $20 million in sales, Schumann said.

The contract doesn't, however, represent the new business that could restore the jobs of laid-off Iron Gate workers. The plant makes only one of the dozens of products in the Ford order.

by CNB