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Kelvion closing York County facility
East Manchester Township facility makes heat exchangers
Roger DuPuis//April 4, 2017//
Kelvion closing York County facility
East Manchester Township facility makes heat exchangers
Roger DuPuis//April 4, 2017//
Listen to this articleJob cuts will begin June 30 at the plant, operated by Kelvion Inc. and located in the Orchard Business Park in East Manchester Township, according to a notice of the layoffs sent to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN.
Kelvion makes industrial brazed plate heat exchangers and related equipment, according to the company’s website.
Kelvion’s corporate parent, Kelvion Holding GmbH, is based in Germany. Efforts to reach a company spokesperson were not immediately successful.
According to a letter from Kelvion to state officials, the company “has determined that it is necessary to cease its operations and close its plant,” adding that the move is expected to be permanent. The layoffs are expected to take place between June 30 and Sept. 1.
There are no bumping rights, the letter adds.
Background
The local operation traces its roots to a former York company, FlatPlate Inc., which started in 1992 with $1 million in start-up funds from local investors, Ben Franklin Technology Partners and traditional bank loans.
In 2006, GEA Group AG of Germany acquired FlatPlate and later merged it with another GEA subsidiary.
Kelvion was formed from GEA’s heat exchanger group in 2015.
In 2007, GEA Group announced plans for a $20 million expansion. The company, which then employed 65 people in York County, intended to create 200 jobs over five years at its new 124,000-square-foot facility in East Manchester Township.
The company planned to use a state funding package worth up to about $1 million, according to the state Department of Community Economic Development, the Business Journal reported at the time.
Kelvion’s website, which includes a timeline of the York division’s history, describes the 10-year-old York facility as its “multi-million dollar U.S. headquarters,” and “a state-of-the-art facility for developing and manufacturing plate heat exchangers.”
“This is where we make the cutting edge brazed and gasketed plate heat exchangers that ship all over the world,” the site adds.
It wasn’t clear how the closure of that plant would affect U.S. operations overall.
