Hubbell to close Burndy plant at Clarke Business Park in Bethel
Hubbell is closing a small Burndy manufacturing plant in Bethel at a cost of more than 50 jobs, with the work being moved to Alabama.
Burndy makes connectors and other hardware for electric and networking equipment, with the company founded in 1924 in Brooklyn, N.Y., by Bern Dibner, and Hubbell acquiring it in 2009 from Framatome Connectors International four years after FCI was bought out by Bain Capital.
At the time of the Hubbell transfer in 2009, Burndy had its headquarters in Manchester, N.H. where it continues to be based today and produced annual sales of $225 million.
Hubbell is based in Shelton under CEO David Nord, with the company increasing profits by half last year selling a wide range of off-the-shelf electric components from flood lights, switches, occupancy sensors and plugs, to sophisticated systems for mining operations and other niche industries.
On Thursday, Hubbell announced the promotion of Gerben Backer to chief operating officer and the corporation president role held previously by Nord; and Katherine Lane to general counsel, replacing An-Ping Hsieh who retired in March.
Hubbell is closing its Burndy manufacturing operation in the Clarke Business Park, with employees having been alerted in February for job losses that will take place in early August, with the process to be completed by year end, according to a Connecticut Department of Labor filing.
A company spokeswoman did not detail a specific reason why the Alabama site was chosen for the consolidation versus Bethel or any other Hubbell locations.
Nord referenced the company’s ongoing efforts to make its operations more efficient, during a late-April conference call with investment analysts, with Hubbell having indicated last year it would intensify that work this year and next.
In the first three months of this year, Hubbell spent roughly $1.8 million on severance and close to half that much more on facility closure costs, according to a company filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
“We’ve made initial progress on our ... footprint consolidation and plan to ramp up our investment in the second and third quarter,” Nord said.
Hubbell owns the Bethel building which totals nearly 80,000 square feet of space on more than 20 acres of land at 185 Grassy Plain St. near the entrance to Clarke Business Park, with Bethel gearing up for an expansion of the industrial park. The building was constructed in 1970; the town last appraised the property at $3.2 million.
It is one of three dozen Hubbell manufacturing plants in the United States, with a facility in Leeds, Ala. to inherit the work currently performed in Bethel, according to the DOL filing.
The Leeds plant likewise produces electric connectors under the Hubble brand, totaling some 250,000 square feet of space and employing 280 people at last report.