ARAUCO North America's operation in St. Stephen, N.B. (Photo submitted)
It is not the economic announcement that folks in St. Stephen wanted to hear — a loss of more than 60 jobs.
The particleboard operation at ARAUCO North America is ceasing operations by the end of December. Company officials say the reason behind the closure is the high cost of natural gas, electricity and the wood supply.
Plant manager Dave Moffatt says they had to give between 60 and 75 employees the tough news Wednesday morning.
“We have two departments here at our St. Stephen operation, one is particleboard and the other is called Fibrex, and the decision today was to close down the particleboard operation,” said Moffatt.
The employees have been given three weeks to either consider early retirement or voluntary departures. Moffatt says it will be tough on not only the workers and their families but the whole town.
“It’s a lot for here, it’s a lot for this community, you know the company here in St. Stephen is very important to the community and you know we really appreciate the impact that this is going to have not only on our team members but the local area,” stated Moffatt.
The plant will still continue to manufacture Fibrex with 120 employees going forward to cover that side of the operation and there are some future investments, however, Moffatt admits, “that doesn’t help a whole lot today when we are making the announcement that we made.”
