Sugar Land cookware company cuts over 100 jobs, blaming tariffs
Tramontina USA Inc., a manufacturer of metal kitchen cookware, will lay off 108 workers in September, according to a Texas Workforce Commission notice.
The Sugar Land-based American subsidiary of a Brazilian company will cease its U.S. manufacturing operations due to increased costs as a result of tariffs on components such as aluminum, steel studs and glass lids. The company also said the cost of raw materials, labor and freight in the U.S. has increased in recent years.
While Tramontina will not close its Sugar Land facility, which is primarily used for assembly and packaging of cookware products, it will close its manufacturing plant in Manitowoc, Wis., which will result in fewer products routed to Sugar Land, so fewer workers will be necessary.
The Wisconsin plant
closure and layoffs in Texas are the latest examples of companies responding to ongoing trade negotiations between China and the U.S. that have increased prices for raw materials and hurt profits for domestic manufacturers.
Nearly 40 percent of Texas businesses reported that they anticipate tariffs will hurt profits in the next two years, according to a recent Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas survey. Manufacturers are being hit particularly hard — more than a quarter reported in the survey that they had reduced capital spending plans as a result of the tariffs.
In a release, the company said cost increases caused its domestically produced items to be less competitive in the housewares market.
“This is an extremely difficult announcement for both Tramontina U.S. Cookware and Tramontina USA, and we certainly recognize the impact on our employees and the Manitowoc and Sugar Land communities,” said Marcelo Borges, Tramontina USA’s president and chief executive, said in the statement.
In Wisconsin, the company will eliminate 145 jobs as it shutters manufacturing operations, where it made aluminum cookware vessels since 2005. Manufacturing operations will move to Tramontina Group’s 10 plants in Brazil.
Employees affected by the layoffs in Sugar Land are eligible to receive a retention bonus if they remain at the facility until the beginning of September.
Approximately 250 employees will remain in the Sugar Land location, Tramontina spokesperson Donna Parke said.
The U.S. headquarters in Sugar Land is one of the largest channels of product distribution for the company.