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Highlands Today

AP's Elberta Crate Closes For Manufacturing

WILL REMAIN A DISTRIBUTION CENTER

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By Joe  Seelig | Highlands Today

Published: December 1, 2008

AVON PARK - Forty-six out of 52 employees with Elberta Crate and Box Company are looking for jobs after the company discontinued manufacturing operations at its Avon Park subsidiary, according to Operations Manager Tim Dean, Monday.

Elberta Crate is a family-owned and managed manufacturer of wooden wire-bound crates used primarily for vegetable packing, according to its Web site.

The Avon Park facility is located at 224 Hatcher Ave. (formerly East Sixth Street), off of Memorial Drive.

"We will be closing down on the production side," said Dean. "Forty-six employees will be laid off due to the economy and declining sales.

"We will keep the facility open as a distribution point with six employees. It was a hard decision and we hated to do it."

Farmers are being cautious of what they plant and will produce next year, Dean said, hence affecting the sales of crates.

"We're hoping the economy will come back," he added.

The facility has been open as Elberta Crate for about 22 years when it took over the business from Revel Crate, said Dean. Elberta has been in business for 106 years.

The company will continue manufacturing at its locations in Bainbridge, Ga; and Warrenton, N.C.

The six employees who are staying in Avon Park will include a facility manager and five other employees.

Dean said he was returning to Bainbridge, Ga., where he has a position waiting for him there with the company.

The Avon Park plant was in the news in May when it got into a dispute with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers that filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in Tampa over plant conditions, including timing and logging of employee restroom breaks.

In mid-August the union reported that it entered into a tentative agreement with Elberta Crate and Box, but would not release the details except the company would throw out its long-standing restroom-break-timing policy.

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