180 people will lose jobs with Fernley plant closure

Monday, Feb. 15, 1999 | 8:57 a.m.

The plant, located 30 miles east of Reno, has manufactured laminated veneer lumber and I-joists for residential and commercial construction since 1992.

Representatives of the Portland, Ore.-based building products company said the closure would allow them to expand production at L-P facilities in Hines, Ore. and Wilmington, N.C. The company will relocate equipment at the Fernley plant to those facilities.

"This is part of a North American strategy designed to double the size of our (engineered wood products) output over the next two years, with a major portion of the expansion scheduled for 1999," L-P general manager Dick Yarbrough told The Fernley Leader.

L-P spokesman Rick Barrilleaux said employees would be laid off in phases beginning Thursday through March 3.

Employees will receive severance pay for four weeks and medical insurance will continue for 60 days. Some employees will be offered a chance to relocate to other L-P plants.

Mark Suwyn has streamlined the company since taking over as chairman in 1996, but has yet to see a penny in annual profits.

In the past two years, L-P has closed or sold more than 20 plants or mills that were comparatively less productive. It still has plants throughout the United States and Canada.

L-P plans to sell the Fernley plant after the removal of equipment from it over the next six to nine months.