BEDFORD — Flo-Pro Inc., a Bedford car component manufacturing company, will close its doors at the end of business today, putting more than 100 people out of work.
The company produces coolant filtration systems for the metalworking and automotive industries, and has about 120 employees, according to a group of employees who spoke with the New Hampshire Union Leader on Monday. Representatives of the local company have not issued a statement or responded to media inquiries since word of the closing first surfaced in December.
The employees said they were told 60 days ago that the company would close, but were given very little information. The Union Leader first reported the planned closure on Dec. 13.
“Nobody said why,” said Jose Almanzar of Nashua, one of a group of half a dozen employees who spoke to a reporter on Monday. Almanzar, who said he assembles parts for transmissions at the company, said most employees don’t have any other employment prospects and that there has not been much business in recent months at Flo-Pro.
According to Almanzar, paychecks were given on Friday, but employees will not get any severance pay when the company closes.
The other employees, who declined to give their names, agreed with Almanzar’s account of the situation.
“I have three kids, everybody has families,” Almanzar said. “Nobody understands what happened.”
Employees said no other information was given to employees about the closing.
Flo-Pro, which occupies the space of the former Car Component Technologies, another auto part manufacturer that closed its doors in 2005, was involved in a lease dispute last year with its landlord that ended up in a hearing scheduled for U.S. District Court in Concord.
The dispute over Flo-Pro’s lease at 10 Iron Horse Drive in Bedford arose during a period after Motorcar Parts of America reportedly acquired Flo-Pro’s parent, Fewick Automotive Products. The dispute centered around a $150,000 letter of credit that served as a security deposit.
It was leasing its space at 10 Iron Horse Drive from a Worcester, Mass., investment group, First American Realty, which purchased the 154,000-square-foot building for $5 million last June. It is one of Bedford’s largest industrial properties near the newly completed Manchester airport access road.
When First American Realty purchased the building, Tom Fini, of the Fini Real Estate Group, spoke highly of Flo-Pro as a tenant.
“They have a great tenant in place, which is part of the reason they bought the property — and there’s still about 9,000 square feet of vacant space, which will add to the value of the property when that gets leased,” he said.
Repeated phone calls to Chris Desaulniers, the general manager of Flo-Pro, according to the employees and published reports, have not been returned since word of the closing first surfaced in December. |
