Everett’s Jeld-Wen to close its doors

EVERETT – Jeld-Wen Inc. will close its Everett door plant by the end of October.

The Oregon-based door manufacturer told its 85 remaining employees about the decision on Thursday.

The announcement came just days after about 75 other workers, who received layoff notices in June, worked their last shifts at the plant.

Chad Turner, a Jeld-Wen vice president, issued a statement calling the closure “a difficult decision, yet an economic necessity.” He said high lumber, labor and transportation costs were the primary reasons.

The privately held corporation has about 21,000 employees at more than 200 businesses in 18 countries, and has $2.2 billion in annual sales. Jeld-Wen said it would offer severance pay to those who stay at its Everett plant until the last day.

Most Everett employees will have the option of transferring to another Jeld-Wen plant, while those who don’t take that option will be eligible for help finding new jobs through local staffing agencies. Jeld-Wen’s nearest plant is in Kent.

Jeld-Wen has been closing some U.S. factories and expanding others since the 1990s. Jeld-Wen’s plant on the Everett waterfront will be sold, the corporation said. The site totals more than 410,000 square feet of manufacturing buildings on 46.5 acres of land.

Jeld-Wen has been in Everett since 1986, when it purchased the former E.A. Nord Co., which was started here in 1925.

The plant traditionally has focused on producing doors from softwoods such as fir and pine, but has struggled in recent years in the face of competition from lower-cost Chinese manufacturers and higher costs that resulted from tariffs on imported Canadian lumber.

In 2004, Jeld-Wen laid off 66 Everett workers, and furloughed another 43 in May as it shut down one of the plant’s assembly lines.

The company said it intended to recall the furloughed workers once market conditions improved, but that never happened.