EAST GREENWICH – Stanley Works subsidiary Stanley Fastening Systems L.P., also known as Stanley Bostitch, will end nail production at its factory here by October and lay off 165 workers, a spokesman said Monday.
Once the layoffs are completed, Stanley will have cut the total number of employees at its East Greenwich facility by 66 percent over two years, to 215, according to Tim Perra, a spokesman for New Britain, Conn.-based Stanley Works.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
Learn More
The decision “was just purely financially driven,” Perra said. Local production will be moved to Stanley Bostitch’s three other nail production facilities in Indiana, Poland and China.
The workers who will remain at the 566,000-square-foot East Greenwich complex, which became Stanley Bostitch’s headquarters in 1957, are in warehouse distribution, engineering and administrative jobs, Perra said.
Stanley Bostitch currently has 380 employees in East Greenwich, which became its only Rhode Island plant last year after the company closed a small satellite facility at North Kingstown’s Quonset Point. The roughly eight jobs there were moved to East Greenwich.
Two years ago, Stanley Bostitch had 633 employees in East Greenwich, almost double the number it has now, Perra said. A decade ago, in 1999, the facility had nearly 1,200 employees, according to Providence Business News data.
Not long ago, Stanley Bostitch was boosting its presence in Rhode Island.
The company added 200 workers between 2003 and 2005, the year it received a $308,000 tax break from the R.I. Economic Development to hire more employees. At the time, the company employed more than 900 people in the state and was embarking on a $7.9 million renovation of part of the East Greenwich plant.
“Stanley Bostitch is one of Rhode Island’s leading corporate citizens and has been for quite some time,” Gov. Donald L. Carcieri said in 2004. The company “has been a good employer and we’re fortunate to have them in Rhode Island,” he added.
But Stanley Bostitch has been hit hard by the multiyear downturn in the construction industry, which has reduced demand for nails and other building supplies. Demand for its products fell by about 25 percent in 2007, Stanley Bostitch President Denise Nemchev said at a panel discussion that November.
Stanley Bostitch traces its roots back to 1896, when it was founded as the Boston Wire Stitcher Company. The company changed its name to Bostitch Inc. in 1948, and was purchased in 1966 by Textron Inc., the Providence-based conglomerate. Textron sold the company to Stanley Works in 1986.
Additional information is available at bostitch.com.
