Illinois-based Zebra Technologies is moving its mobile printer manufacturing
operation in Warwick to California, eliminating 200 of its 400 Rhode Island
jobs.
The company is shifting its operations at its Warwick facility to research and development, the company said.
Zebra has three manufacturing locations in Vernon Hills, Ill., Camarillo, Calif., and 30 Plan Way in Warwick.
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Bob Danahy, director of global, mobile and wireless technology for Zebra, said that the change would not affect the 100 workers at Wakefield-based Atlantek Inc., which Zebra acquired last November. Atlantek is a specialty printer for products like IDs and licenses.
“As of right now, there are no plans for any consolidation but they will continue to be evaluated,” Danahy said.
Danahy said each of the facilities had research and development, product management, design and engineering and all manufacturing and service responsibilities. The company’s Greenville, Wis., facility handles label manufacturing.
“Before, each location had a responsibility for the product set,” Danahy said. “We’re a (growing) public company and it did not make sense for us to have three manufacturing facilities all over the country. The company decided to consolidate those operations as a way to reduce costs.”
As a result, the Warwick facility will now focus only on research and development and product management.
Danahy said that Zebra employees were notified of the decision in February; the process will continue until December. Although no cuts have been made, Danahy said that the first round would occur later this month and into July, with a 12 percent cut in the work force. The majority of the other layoffs will take place in late October.
“We have had job training sessions, we’ve been working with the economic development groups to find options for our employees and have had out-placement agencies working with us,” Danahy said. “We’ve implemented a whole set of programs – our goal is to make sure they’re actively employed at the end of this.”
This is the first time Zebra has put a specific center in any state, and Danahy said the company is interested in growing its higher-end, technical work force in the state in the future.
