Deere & Co. said this week that it will lay off 220 employees at the John Deere Seeding and Cylinder plant in Moline, Ill., on an indefinite basis, effective Feb. 15, 2016. The employees were informed of the move in meetings at the facility.
The layoffs reflect last week’s forecast by Deere that agricultural machinery sales will decrease during fiscal year 2016. Deere said the layoffs are necessary to “align the size of the manufacturing workforce at individual factories with market demand for products made at each specific location.”
In the past, some manufacturing employees at the Seeding and Cylinder facility were laid off on a seasonal basis in the spring, returning to work in the fall. This week’s announcement is indefinite with no specific call-back date.
Last week, Deere & Co. reported fiscal fourth quarter net sales and revenues decreased 25 percent to $6.7 billion, and dropped 20 percent to $28.86 billion for the full fiscal year, blaming “weakness in the global agricultural sector and a slowdown in construction equipment markets.”
The company also noted the impact of low commodity prices and stagnant farm incomes and said the effect would be greater in the sale of higher horsepower models.
Deere reported last week that construction and forestry sales were also hard-hit, with sales from that division plunging 32 percent for the fiscal fourth quarter and 9 percent for the full year.
For more on Deere’s full year and fiscal fourth quarter, go to: http://rermag.com/headline-news/deere-remains-profitable-revenue-and-earnings-drop-fiscal-2015-and-q4
