Stanley Engineered Fastening will permanently close its facility in Stanfield, NC, reports the Stanfield News & Press.

The planned closure was revealed when Stanley filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) report with the North Carolina’s Commerce Department. The report is generally required when 50 or more employees will be laid off, whether temporarily or permanently. 

Stanley Engineered Fastening operates 32 manufacturing plants around the world, including 17in the U.S. The 90,000-sq.ft. Stanfield plant manufactures fasteners under the Avdel brand, which includes highly engineered structural blind fasteners, lockbolts, blind rivet nuts and speed fasteners.

Kent Shane, director of operations for Stanley Engineered Fastening, sent an explanatory letter as part of the WARN procedure, stated that the parent corporation Stanley Black & Decker made the decision to close the facility “in an attempt to strategically consolidate our worldwide operations into fewer facilities.”

The closure will take place in several phases beginning in late February and ending in early August of 2021. Fifty positions come from the production department, including 20 people who work as head operators and 13 people who work as final assembly operators.

The facility has produced blind fasteners since 1995, reports Chris Miller at the Stanly News & Press, first under the ownership of Avdel Cherry Textron, followed by Acument Global Technologies and Infastech before becoming Stanley Engineered Fastening in 2013.