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Hard times on the farm have led to hard times on the farm equipment factory floor.
Layoffs were announced last week at Flexi-Coil, Canada’s largest short-line farm equipment manufacturing plant, that will result in assembly line shutdown at the end of April.
The Saskatoon-based firm will permanently lay off 65 staff and temporarily lay off 413 people for four months this summer.
One year ago, the seeding, spraying and tillage equipment company employed 1,700. After April 23 it will employ about 400 inside Canada and 50 internationally.
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Remaining staff will work in customer services, parts, sales and research and development, according to company officials.
“Low commodity prices around the world have hurt our business. Farmers are not going to spend until things turn around for them,” said Kent Anderson, a Flexi-Coil vice-president.
He said even the growing Australian market has been crippled by the global commodity slump.
In November 1998, Flexi-Coil permanently cut 460 workers and placed 180 on layoff for recall this month. In September 1998, 800 people were laid off and the previous spring 300 were cut from the payroll.
Others follow
New Holland NV, a 35 percent owner of Flexi-Coil, is also being squeezed by the agricultural slowdown.
It will cut manufacturing staff in its tractor plants at Winnipeg and at two others in Europe.
Internationally, 1,300 people have been laid off by New Holland after earnings dropped more than 20 percent for 1998. More cuts are expected after the poor first quarter earnings reported in 1999.
New Holland employs 20,000 people in more than two dozen countries. A company spokesperson said the company has no plans to cut research and development initiatives or market development in the Third World.
Industry analysts say all major farm equipment manufacturers are suffering from the effects of low priced commodities in combination with Asian, Russian and Latin American financial ills.
