HANCOCK, Vt. (AP) – A Virginia-based company that makes hardwood veneer products is closing its Vermont mill, putting 88 people out of work.
Chesapeake Hardwood Products announced late last year that it would pull out of Vermont. At the time, the company said it would try to find a buyer for its Hancock facility.
Now Chesapeake, which is the largest employer in the area, says the plant will close.
George Robson with the Agency of Commerce and Community Development said Chesapeake’s decision is part of a trend in the wood products industry.
“This is normally a type of facility owned and operated by a national or international corporation,” Robson said. “As things have shifted in the world marketplace, these companies have shifted the locations that they want to be in.”
Chesapeake’s chief executive officer said last year that the move is an effort to consolidate operations at the company’s Virginia headquarters. However, he also criticized Vermont’s regulatory and tax policies.
Robson said the state has been actively working to find a buyer since Chesapeake’s announcement.
“There’s other investors and people in the wood industry that we’re currently working with,” he said. “So we do have at least strong hope that we’re going to find somebody that will reopen the facility within the very near future, hopefully even this summer.”
The plant closing also could affect Hancock’s finances. More than 80 percent of the town is owned by the National Forest Service, and is off the tax rolls.
The Hancock facility has been in operation under various owners since the 1920s.
AP-ES-05-25-03 1452EDT
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