Manufacturer Plans To Close South Gate Components Factory

By AMANDA BRONSTAD

Staff Reporter

Thomas & Betts Corp. will close its South Gate facility this month as part of a company-wide restructuring effort expected to save the electrical components manufacturer $45 million to $50 million annually.

About 150 people will lose their jobs as a result of the South Gate closure, said Tricia Bergeron, vice president of investor and corporate relations.

The local facility is one of 10 plants employing 1,000 people at Thomas & Betts to be shut down in the United States, Europe and Mexico, she said. All are in the electrical division of the company, she said.

“The company has had problems with many of its businesses,” Bergeron said. “This is obviously the biggest one. We’ve closed plants before. But this is more of a consolidated effort.”

She said laid-off employees will receive severance packages.

Thomas & Betts designs and manufactures connectors and components used in the wiring of commercial and industrial buildings. It sells to electrical distributors such as Granger Industrial Supply.

The South Gate facility makes metal and non-metallic boxes used in electrical plugs. Those operations will be consolidated into two Tennessee plants, Bergeron said.

The Memphis-based company’s electrical division reported a net loss of $45.6 million (78 cents per diluted share) for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2001, up from a net loss of $19.2 million (33 cents) in the like year-earlier quarter. Third-quarter revenues were $373.1 million, vs. $443.2 million in the third quarter of 2000.