Textron filing gives more insight into forthcoming layoffs

The day after one of Wichita area’s largest employers announced an undisclosed number of layoffs, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows the company plans to eliminate roughly 875 positions.

Textron Aviation announced Thursday that it would reduce staff. A spokesperson declined to comment further than the two-paragraph statement issued by the aviation company.

On Friday, a document that had Thursday’s date was posted on the SEC’s website with more insight into the company’s “restructuring plan.” The plan, approved by the Board of Directors on Tuesday, will “improve overall operating efficiency through headcount reductions, facility consolidations and other actions.”

The document talks about changes to the company’s aviation and industrial segments. The latter includes lawnmowers, ATVs, snowmobiles and a company that makes plastic products, including fuel systems.

Layoffs were only mentioned in the aviation section.

“Severance and related costs are estimated to be in the range of $40 million to $45 million, with a total headcount reduction of approximately 875 positions,” the document says.

The document says that contract termination and other costs will be between $10 million and $15 million, including “facility closure costs.” It’s unclear if the facility closures are from the contractor or Textron itself.

“We anticipate that the restructuring plan will be substantially completed by the end of 2019,” the document says.

Textron is the parent company that manufactures Cessna, Hawker and Beechcraft planes. It is headquartered in Wichita. The company’s announcement said the layoffs would be effective Dec. 31.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires businesses to give a 60-day notice before closing a plant or mass layoffs, defined as affecting more than 50 people at a single site. However, the law has exemptions such as “unforeseeable business circumstances.”

Data from the Greater Wichita Partnership — an offshoot of the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce — lists Textron as the area’s second-largest employer with 9,000 people. Spirit AeroSystems, another aviation company, has 12,500 employees.

In October, Textron released its quarterly reports that showed year-over-year net income dropped roughly $360 million to $616 million through September 2019, according to unaudited figures in Textron’s latest SEC filings.

This story was originally published December 7, 2019 at 5:50 PM.