Head – Charting a course forward Sub – ADA reacts to Flanders announcement

AAF International Flanders announcement that it would shut down operations at its Ardmore plant came as a surprise to the community. Among those caught by surprise was the Ardmore Development Authority, which has been working to communicate with the company and get additional information behind its decision. The company announced Tuesday that it planned to end operations by December and there would be 120 jobs impacted. ADA President & CEO Bill Murphy said the company leases its facility and plans on subleasing it. He also said the ADA was informed that most Flanders employees will be released within 60 days with a handful that will stay in place through December as they wrap up operations. "The skillsets they said were everything from entry level assemblers to technical machine operators to hourly lead operators," Murphy said. Murphy said the decision to close the Ardmore plant appears to be part of the bigger corporate picture as the international company has expanded its presence on the continent. "As they admitted, their acquisitions over the year led them to have a much bigger footprint of operations across North America than they need for their production distribution and products," Murphy said. "It is just, the word I keep coming back to is unfortunate. We just can't seem to get ahead of it." Murphy said the ADA is looking at regular check-ins with as many businesses as they can to see what is happening at the national, state and local level. Something like a business confidence index so that the ADA can engage its Chamber members. "You can only meet with and get as much information out of a company as they are willing to share," he said. "Sometimes, I think if you get them with anonymous surveys, sometimes you get a little better information and hopefully that will give us a little more red flags ahead of the game." Murphy said there is a difference between the Michelin and Flanders impending closures. "It is 100 jobs compared to Michelin, but it is still 100 jobs," he said. "So, as we have talked internally. Psychologically, it is impactful, but it feels a lot different from Michelin because going into Michelin, we didn't have a new strategic plan that laid out what we needed to do as a community differently to prepare ourselves for the future. "We have now got that. We are starting to execute on things like focusing on entrepreneurship, that piece that we really let go for a long time and we are starting to focus on." Murphy said the ADA is starting to do better, telling its story with better web presence and better marketing strategies. There is a plan to take a strategy to the board that will better tell Ardmore's story. Murphy said the state has matching funds available for communities such as Ardmore. "Again, just keep at it," he said. "Knocking on as many doors as we can and getting in front of as many companies and site location decision makers as we can about what Ardmore has to offer."