Lights out for Wilmington fixture plant in 6-9 months

WILMINGTON — Philips Electronics subsidiary Lightolier will close its local fluorescent light-fixture manufacturing plant within the next six to nine months, company officials announced.

The plant’s workers were informed of the closure Friday, said Philips Lighting Communications Manager Silvie Casanova.

Casanova attributed the decision to “changes taking place in the global lighting industry.”

While the company will work with local and state officials to run retraining and job-placement programs, it has not been determined what will happen with the jobs of the nearly 250 employees.

“Many of them are part of a union, so that will be pursuant to whatever their union contract says,” Casanova said.

Unionized Wilmington Lightolier employees are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1499. Union representatives were not immediately available for comment Monday.

After the November 2010 announcement that Philips Lighting would shutter its Sparta, Tenn., plant, IBEW launched a petition and advocacy campaign encouraging supporters to contact the company and speak out against outsourcing.

Headquartered in Fall River, Lightolier also operates manufacturing centers in Edison, N.J., Burgaw, N.C., Dallas, Fontana, Calif., and Camargo, Mexico.

The California plant is the only other property to manufacture fluorescent fixtures.

Because the fixtures made at the Wilmington plant rely on older lighting technologies, the company has decided to phase out that facility, Casanova said. The operations will be moved to other Lightolier locations.

Casanova said it was “difficult to say at this point” if any more closures would follow.

“The company announced in September that they were going to be streamlining operations a bit further, and this is just executing that more,” she said.

Lightolier, which was founded in 1904, introduced track lighting and the digital dimmer to the market.

Follow Katie Lannan at twitter.com/katielannan.