More Florida manufacturing jobs will be lost as a large company makes more job cuts.
PGT Inc., based in Venice, Fla., recently cut another 150 jobs in an effort to reduce costs. The company, which makes hurricane-resistant windows and doors, hopes the manufacturing job cuts will help save more than $6 million each year, according to an article by the Herald Tribune. The layoffs affected workers at PGT’s plants in Venice and Salisbury, N.C., but it is unclear how many employees were laid off at each site.
The company currently employs 1,350 workers, 44 percent less than its peak employment number. In December 2006 PGT employed 2,400 workers. The lower number of jobs can be traced back to the downturn in Florida’s housing market.
“These actions were necessary given the continuing difficult economic environment and the severe downturn in the housing market, and we are thankful for contributions made by the affected employees,” Rod Hershberger, PGT’s president and chief executive, said in the article.
“New single-family permits in Florida decreased by 49 percent in 2007 compared to the prior year,” the article notes. “The resulting decline in our customers’ construction levels has decreased demand for our products which has had, and which we expect will continue to have, an adverse impact on our sales and results of operations.”
According to a report filed by PGT, the number of housing permits in Florida decreased by 43 percent when compared to Q3 of 2007 and by 10 percent from Q2 of 2008. The company’s sales came in at $169.3 percent during the first nine months of 2008, down from $224.1 million last year.
However, there are some promising signs. As of September 2008, PGT had $18.8 million in cash, 4 percent less than the $19.6 million it had last year. The company also reduced its long-term debt by 30 percent, from $130 million to $90 million.
“We went back to our shareholders and raised almost $30 million last year, which we used to pay down debt,” Jeffrey Jackson, PGT’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said in the article. “We did the same with another $10 million from operations. We just didn’t want to be out on a limb with regard to debt.”
The company is hoping that its current situation will result in an opportunity to gain market share from competitors. PGT has made an effort to introduce new incentive programs to distributors and end users and increase marketing an sales efforts.