Cooper Roller Bearings Group (UK, website; a division of Kaydon Corp., USA; 5251R9N7) revealed another 40 employees have been laid off from the King's Lynn manufacturing location, in the company's third round of cutbacks this year.
The first round of layoffs, 10 in March, was accomplished entirely through early retirements and voluntary layoffs. A second round, 20 in May-June, reportedly did not offer early retirement and was only partially successful in attracting voluntary layoffs -- leaving some mandatory layoffs. This latest round of layoffs cuts another 40 workers, and has no voluntary component. Approximately 200 people remain at the King's Lynn manufacturing and headquarters location.
Founded in 1907, Cooper is the world's leading manufacturer of split mounted roller bearings.
The company said continued worldwide weakness in its target industrial markets is behind the declining demand and layoffs, a situation not expected to improve in the near term.
Until recently, Cooper had been growing quickly and expanding to ease capacity restrictions -- making this year's pullbacks all the more painful. During its centenary celebration in 2007, Cooper had revealed plans to hire as many as 120 more workers after investing more than £1 million in plant and equipment.
Cooper's proprietary split roller bearings are used in several industries which performed well in recent years but were also hard-hit in the economic turndown -- power generation, steel manufacturing, mining, oil and gas exploration, cement mixing, heavy conveyors, quarrying, and marine.
A Cooper spokesman said: "There are early signs that confidence is now returning to the global bearing market and conditions are stabilizing."
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