Mack to Cut About 12% of Workforce

Mack Trucks said that due to weakness in the heavy truck market, it plans to reduce its workforce by about 12%.

The Allentown, Pa.-based company recently said deliveries during the first two months of 2001 fell 37%.

The company will lay off 135 employees and cut productions at an operations plant in Winnsboro, S.C, about 300 from its assembly plant in Macungie, Pa., and 150 from its powertrain facility in Hagerstown, Md.

In addition, the company plans to reduce about 130 indirect positions outside the assembly facilities during April.



Over the next several months, Mack plans to reduce production at the Macungie facility to a planned rate of 45 trucks per day in July. Currently, the plant makes 62 per day.

The Winnsboro plant will be taken down during the weeks of April 23, April 30, June 4 and June 25. Production at this plant will be reduced from 72 to 63 trucks.

"It is clear that Mack, like the rest of the industry, will face a major drop in sales this year," Mack President Michel Gigou said. "This difficult decision is one part of an overall plan designed to maintain Mack's competitive position in an extremely challenging environment."

All the job cuts will be completed before July 27, which is the start of the company's regular summer shutdown period.

This past January, Sweden-based Volvo (VOLVY) acquired Mack Trucks.