Company Lays Off Approx. 300 More Employees, Plans Week-Long Shutdowns

Aero-News has learned Vero Beach, FL-based Piper Aircraft will take further actions in the wake of a massive slump in sales, releasing approximately 300 employees effective immediately.

"As a result of the deepening global recession, Piper Aircraft finds it necessary to take further actions to ensure the Company remains viable," said Piper spokesman Mark Miller. "Similar to many other businesses, General Aviation has been experiencing one of the worst downturns in its history and sales of airplanes have sharply deteriorated over the past few months. These unforeseeable business circumstances are virtually unprecedented and have caused the company to take agonizing and painful actions."

In addition to the layoffs, Piper will shut down for one week in April, and again in July, "to avoid building up unnecessary inventory and to provide time to assess rapidly changing market conditions." The shutdowns will be without pay, and will affect all employees, Miller added, from Management to hourly manufacturing workers.

Miller stressed that "when the economy improves, every attempt will be made to rehire impacted employees," but added Piper may be forced to take further action before then if the market continues to "deteriorate."

The layoffs are on top of the 150 workers Piper laid off in November. As ANN reported, last month Piper CEO Jim Bass told commissioners in Indian River County the planemaker planned to curtail production this year by at least 40 percent compared to 2008 levels, due to the ongoing sales slump.

"We deeply regret the pain this is causing," said Miller, "but the truth is that people aren’t buying planes, or, boats, or cars or making any other big-ticket purchases for that matter. It's never business-as-usual when people lose their jobs. We're talking about friends and neighbors, and the impact on them, their families, and everyone else in the community is heart wrenching. But we have had to do this to preserve the business and the approximately 650 jobs Piper continues to provide in a very difficult economy. 

"We are building far less than we normally would and cannot afford to keep a full workforce when we don't have the sales to support that," he continued. "This is a very difficult and agonizing situation driven by virtually unprecedented and unforeseeable business circumstances. Our hearts go out to the people we have had to let go, and we're focused now on bringing back as many people as possible once the economy recovers.

"Piper designs, builds and sells some of the best aircraft in the world, and we are hopeful that we will emerge from this downturn with renewed optimism that better days are ahead of us," Miller concluded.

FMI: www.piper.com