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The Palm Harbor plant falls victim to the general economic slowdown. Hundreds of jobs will be lost.
By DAVE GUSSOW
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 2, 2001
PALM HARBOR -- Only two years after moving into Pinellas County, Flextronics International will close its manufacturing plant early next year and leave hundreds of employees jobless.
The Singapore-based company, which designs and manufactures electronic components, blamed the general economic slowdown, which worsened after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, for cutbacks at facilities around the world, including Palm Harbor.
As Flextronics customers assess their needs, "it carries over to how they forecast to us what we will be manufacturing for them," company spokeswoman Barbara Bough said.
Flextronics, which employs more than 70,000 people worldwide, would not say how many work at the Pinellas County plant or others affected by the cutbacks. But a company that previously operated the Palm Harbor facility employed about 450 people.
Local employees were notified of the plant closing late last week and will be offered severance packages, according to Bough.
The job losses at Flextronics apparently are the highest to hit the local economy since the September attacks. Even before that, the area had lost thousands of jobs as the economy cooled down, including 950 when catalog shopping operator Fingerhut closed its Tampa call centers last winter.
The United States is one of the high-cost areas for manufacturing, Bough said, and "unfortunately the Palm Harbor location is one of the facilities that will be most deeply affected by the restructuring changes."
Microsoft is one of Flextronics' high-profile customers, choosing it to manufacture its new Xbox video game system at plants in Hungary, Mexico and Asia.
Flextronics occupies a 130,000-square-foot building that at one time was home to a Sam's Club on U.S. 19. It had been purchased and renovated for $7.5-million by Dovatron, a company that produced circuit boards and that later was bought by Flextronics.
Bough said the closing of the Palm Harbor plant will be delayed until early next year so it can meet current orders.
Flextronics' stock has lost more than half its value, falling from a 52-week high of $43 a share to close Monday at $15.90, down 64 cents.
- Information from Times files was used in this report. Dave Gussow can be reached at gussow@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4228.