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Williamsport Sun Gazette
About 80 employees at Shop-Vac's Williamsport plant will lose their jobs under a reorganization of the company's American operations, according to a report from PennLive.
"These actions are being taken to better control costs and to enable us to continue our efforts to rebuild and restore the iconic Shop-Vac brand," Gary DuBoff, company president, told PennLive. "Although we have seen some successes as a result of our efforts to date, this current measure has been dictated by the competitive cost environment and macroeconomic conditions... Simply put, our costs are substantially higher than our competitors. Nevertheless, we remain committed to the long-term restoration of the brand."
The jobs cut from the Williamsport plant will be moved overseas, according to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette's reporting on Saturday.
"The company plans to maintain U.S. distribution and headquarters functions in Williamsport together with manufacturing of the SK Tools," DuBoff told PennLive.
Shop-Vac, which manufactures wet/dry residential, commercial and industrial vacuum cleaners, is part of GreatStar Tools USA Inc., a subsidiary of Hangzhous GreatStar Industrial Co. headquartered in Hangzhous, China, PennLive reported.
GreatStar Tools took over the Shop-Vac plant in December 2020, three months after the former owners began a phased shutdown. It purchased SK Tools in July 2021, from Ideal Industries Inc. and moved production from Sycamore, Illinois, to Williamsport.
PennLive reported that Shop-Vac would not disclose its current employment figures for Williamsport but due to the size of the layoffs it must file notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), according to Jason Fink, president and CEO of the Williamsport Lycoming Chamber of Commerce.
"Our foremost concern is the employees impacted by job loss in addition to the city as a whole," said Williamsport Mayor Derek Slaughter. "We have been engaged with the Governor's Action Team, the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce and Shop-Vac to return a portion of the workforce to keep the facility in operation."