By KRYSTLE CHOW
Breaking news story published on the Ottawa Business Journal website.
Nov. 7, 2006

Click here to read this article on OttawaBusinessJournal.com.

Manufacturing company Solectron will be closing down its facility in Kanata early next year, eliminating nearly 400 jobs.

A senior executive told the Ottawa Business Journal that the U.S.-based firm would be shutting down the plant in February or March of 2007, putting 247 permanent workers and 147 temporary employees out of work.

Solectron’s director of EMS operations Lucie Dastous confirmed in a phone interview that the Kanata facility would be closing down, but declined to comment further.

In a statement, the company said the decision was made to “help stabilize its operations in Canada.”

Roy Sunstrum of the Ottawa Manufacturers’ Network said the closure had been in the works for some time and that the news was not a big shock.

“There are quite a number of (manufacturing) companies in that area and it was probably a bit crowded,” said Mr. Sunstrum. “It was probably more capacity than the region needed.”

He insisted that the closure was not part of an overall trend and added that it would be offset by the growth in many other manufacturing firms in Ottawa.

“There are bad-news stories and there are good-news stories,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, but… it’s netted off by the growth of EMS Technologies, SMART Technologies and other companies.”

Solectron announced in October that it would be cutting 1,400 jobs from its global workforce of 53,000.