Columbia Elevator Products has significantly reduced its Cowley County workforce recently but a company official denied reports the New York-based company planned to close its Strother Field plant.
“That’s not true at all,” Jim Yates, facility manager for the local plant, said Friday. “We plan to be in Winfield a long time.”
Yates did confirm the company made a significant reduction in its workforce recently. At one point, nearly 50 people worked for Columbia Elevator and now that number is under 30.
There’s been a downturn in the number of new construction projects nationally, Yates said. That has had an affect on Columbia’s business.
The reduction in staff locally could last awhile.
Columbia always has considered this area a place where the company might expand at some point, Yates said. Local government officials said the company has talked of growing its local production facility at some point.
Columbia bought the Strother Field plant in 2008.
The company produces elevator components for use in buildings and high-rise contruction.