600 Calgary jobs lost in Haworth plant closure

[broken_legs]

About 600 jobs lost as Haworth moves Calgary plant to U.S.etc...

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/08/18/haworth-factory-closing-calgary-jobs.html?ref=rss

[SCHIDER23]

I just saw this on the news, man my uncle works there I wonder is he is one of the the people let go. :(

[banned3x]

wow shitty deal

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by SCHIDER23
I just saw this on the news, man my uncle works there I wonder is he is one of the the people let go. :(

Either he's moving to Michigan or giving his boos $20+M, he will be looking for a new job.

Can't help it. Calgarians are highly over priced. Manufacturing is labor intensive and labor is cheap in Michigan. Add a $20M tax incentive, cheap labor and cheap transportation cost, who won't leave.

[Lex350]

I've worked for Smed and the Haworth dealer before. This factory was on the chopping block for a long time. In the Haworth supply chain this place always was behind or screwing up on orders. They launched a new wall system 3 years ago at Neocon and they still can't produce it right or on time. It cost them big time when they couldn't deliver for the Peak Energy job.


All the factory people will lose their jobs. I suspect it will be mostly the marketing people that they keep to put in a smaller showroom.

It's really not surprising. The whole reason why they first opened it up here was because at the time it was bought from Smed they were getting all their wood product from Lunsted Washington. At the time it was cheaper to produce here and this factory had better equipment. But two things killed it; bad management and the increase in costs. I thought that they were going to move it to Southern Ontario. So I imagine they will set up near the main factory in Holland Michigan. Yikes! I've had the bad fortune to have to visit there many times. A very boring place to live.

[scat19]

But 3,500 jobs created at the new mall :thumbsup:

[911fever]

hahahaha sucks to be in Calgayry

[mr2mike]

Looks like they're totally clearing out as this place is for sale.
I did some painting a long time ago at this Haworth corp. retreat complex out in Priddis.

VERY nice property!! Close to the golf course.

Rumor had it that it was originally built by an ex- BreX executive. Not sure which one of it it's even true.

http://www.sothebysrealty.ca/idx/cms/844/details.html

[Ntense_SpecV]

Originally posted by mr2mike
Looks like they're totally clearing out as this place is for sale.
I did some painting a long time ago at this Haworth corp. retreat complex out in Priddis.

VERY nice property!! Close to the golf course.

Rumor had it that it was originally built by an ex- BreX executive. Not sure which one of it it's even true.

http://www.sothebysrealty.ca/idx/cms/844/details.html

I thought it was built by Mogens Smed, before he sold SMED to Haworth?

[5hift]

Originally posted by 911fever
hahahaha sucks to be in Calgayry

Yeah the GTA's financial position is much better

[Crymson]

Originally posted by Ntense_SpecV


I thought it was built by Mogens Smed, before he sold SMED to Haworth?

What i heard, was that it was built by Smed, to be his home. But he added a whole mess load of stuff on the company $$ to make it a retreat, corporate hosting place, convention centre for meetings and such. So when Smed got hostiley taken out by haworth, it was on the books as a corporate asset and he lost his home along with his company.

Ironically, and i don't know how true this is, was that it was bought by Smed's neighbour, whom smed had been trying for years to buy out and expand into.

[mr2mike]

Ya that sounds more realistic (The Smed build). I think the maintainence people there just wanted to talk a big story.

Sucks that he would link his personal home with his company. I'm guessing he had/has more than one house.

[Aerobat]

that explains why the haworth g450 was in town...sounds like they really need to cut costs...
http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5691596&nseq=2

[Crymson]

The house we were talking about sold.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Spectacular+estate+home+fetches+record/1973906/story.html

got a bit of the history there.

[Lex350]

Originally posted by Ntense_SpecV


I thought it was built by Mogens Smed, before he sold SMED to Haworth?

It was built by Mogens..I worked on it when I worked at smed.

[Lex350]

Originally posted by Crymson


What i heard, was that it was built by Smed, to be his home. But he added a whole mess load of stuff on the company $$ to make it a retreat, corporate hosting place, convention centre for meetings and such. So when Smed got hostiley taken out by haworth, it was on the books as a corporate asset and he lost his home along with his company.

Ironically, and i don't know how true this is, was that it was bought by Smed's neighbour, whom smed had been trying for years to buy out and expand into.


The Haworth buyout wasn't Hostile. They went to Haworth to stop the hostile buyout from a company called Inscape. He didn't lose the home to the company. He sold it. He then built out in Bragg Creek. There was a rumour that originally the buildings were sold but not the land because some of the land (like the service road) was owned by his sister Christine and they couldn't sell it out right. I'm not sure how this ended up.

[Lex350]

Originally posted by Aerobat
that explains why the haworth g450 was in town...sounds like they really need to cut costs...
http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5691596&nseq=2

Haworth is doing fine. Out of the 5 major office furniture Manufacturer's it is the only private family owned company with sales over 1 billion per year.