Snorkel Announces Layoffs
August 20, 2008 • Snorkel International has announced that it will lay off up to 125 workers by the end of September at its factory in
The newspaper reported that the move is in response to decreased demand for the company's aerial work platforms. Dan Jenkins, spokesman for Snorkel's parent company, England-based Tanfield Group, said increased construction costs have slowed projects industrywide, leading to fewer orders.
As previously reported, Snorkel employees voted to form a union in June. Jenkins said the unionization had no effect on the decision to lay off workers.
In October 2007, Tanfield announced a $10 million investment to ramp up production at Snorkel as it moved into full line manufacture of aerial work platforms. The company recruited an additional 40 assembly workers, with 60 more to follow this summer. Snorkel said in March that demand for its aerial work platforms was soaring since it was acquired by Tanfield and implemented a program to increase output by more than 60 percent, compared to 2007. As of March, Snorkel's staff had increased 25 percent over the previous six months, rising from 400 employees to more than 500 at its two
Snorkel isn't the only company feeling the economic crunch.
