Iowa
Kinze Manufacturing announces layoffs as Iowa ag industry downturn continues
Another round of layoffs is hitting Iowa’s faltering agricultural industry sector as Kinze Manufacturing of Williamsburg announced it would idle 193 employees, effective Thursday.
“We deeply regret the necessity of this action. This decision was not made lightly and it is a direct response to current ag market realities,” Kinze President Susanne Veatch said in a prepared statement.
“No other reductions are planned at this time,” Veatch added.
The Williamsburg-based manufacturer, founded 59 years ago, produces planters and grain carts worldwide and is notable for its “yard art” along Interstate 80 west of Iowa City, including a progressively smaller stack of nine of its grain wagons topped by a 1/16th-scale cart replica.
Posted on Iowa’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, site, the Kinze layoffs are the latest manifestation of a sluggish farm economy that has seen John Deere pare more than 2,000 jobs since the first of the year in Iowa and Illinois.
More: With thousands of Iowa jobs already cut, how deep will the farm downturn go?
In statements, Deere has projected large farm equipment sales this year would fall 20% to 25% below a year ago, a result of lower commodity prices, higher interest rates and market volatility.
Des Moines’ Bridgestone-Firestone tractor tire plant and other ag equipment makers also have had layoffs.
Kinze employs 815 workers at its Williamsburg headquarters and manufacturing facilities, which span more than 30 acres under one roof, according to the company’s website.
Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.