New Zealand-headquartered building materials manufacturer Fletcher Building will start closing its Welshpool fibreboard plant next month with 114 employees to be affected.
The medium density fibreboard plant, which comes under Fletcher's Laminex business, will be consolidated with a more modern plant in Gympie, Queensland.
Fletcher cited reduced demand and over-capacity in the industry as reasons for the consolidation.
The Welshpool site closure will be phased over a period of time, with manufacturing operations to close late next month.
Fletcher said customers will not be affected by the change.
The company has laid off around 1850 staff in the past 12 months, including about 400 in Australia.
The announcement is below:
Fletcher Building Limited ("Fletcher Building") announced today that its Laminex business will close its medium density fibreboard ("MDF") plant in Welshpool in Perth Western Australia.
The Welshpool plant manufactures MDF for both the domestic Australian market and export market in Asia. Due to reduced demand and over-capacity in the industry, it is proposed to consolidate MDF manufacturing at the larger and more modern plant in Gympie. In addition to MDF, the Welshpool plant currently produces Veneers, Low Pressure Laminate (LPL), and Process Panels and bearers.
The site closure will be phased over a period of time, with MDF manufacturing operations closing on 24th July 2009. Veneers, Process Panels, LPL and bearers are expected to relocate to other Laminex sites at some point within the next 3 - 6 months.
The Welshpool Plant employs 114 people.
Customers will not be affected by the change.