Large employer in Newton announces it will halt production, lay off workers

One of the larger employers in Newton told hundreds of its workers Monday that they are halting production, leaving 450 people without jobs by the end of February, according to a company spokesperson.

The pending layoffs came within a couple of months of MasterBrand Cabinets announcing a new brand to be built at the Newton facility. The new brand led local officials to think the company was expanding its footprint in Newton.

“From my understanding, it was a shock to everyone there,” Harvey County Economic Development executive director Beth Shelton said Tuesday. “It’s definitely a huge impact for the community and something that shocking, we didn’t see coming. We thought they were in growth mode.”

MasterBrand Cabinets spokesperson Farand Pawlak said the layoffs are based on “sharp decline on incoming orders” for the new brand. That brand is stock cabinets that would be found in new houses and the demands for those have dropped, he said.

Asked whether the facility going idle and not closing means those jobs will be brought back, he said: “I don’t think we want to speculate on that now.” The company owns the facility.

He said the decline in orders isn’t impacting other jobs at any of the company’s 20-plus U.S. manufacturing sites. He said the company has over 14,000 employees.

Newton employees found out they would lose their jobs in between shifts Monday afternoon. Some employees, Pawlak said, will have their last day on Dec. 15 when the company phases out the new line — called AristoKraft — and the rest will have their last day in mid-February when the jobs for the Mid Continent brand are phased out. The manufacturing of Mid Continent, a brand that had been made there before AristoKraft, will shift to other facilities.

Pawlak said the company is offering severance above what would be required by law because of the short notice about layoffs. He wouldn’t say specifically what the severance was. Federal law demands a 60-day notice before large layoffs. The Kansas database doesn’t show any notice from MasterBrand.

Kansas WorkforceOne business services director Tucky Allen said the bright side is that local employers have a shortage of help. AGCO said they could take 180 employees, he said, and Stanley Black & Decker (formerly Excel Industries) said they could take around 50.

Those two are the largest manufacturers in Harvey County, with 1,150 and 900 employees, Shelton said, adding that Masterbrand was third.

Kansas WorkforceOne, an organization that helps with employment, and Harvey County Economic Development have partnered to offer a job fair at Masterbrand on Friday. Roughly 20 employers will be brought in, Allen said.

On Monday, Kansas WorkforceOne will also work with employees to go over unemployment and offer other services, which include funding for training to help workers land other jobs. Allen said the jobs being lost mostly pay between $15 and $20.

Shelton said the Newton manufacturing facility started in 1984 as Midcontinent Cabinetry before being bought by another company and then MasterBrand.

This story was originally published December 6, 2022 at 1:22 PM.