Automated Conveyor Systems in Lynchburg lays off 20 workers

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A Lynchburg company laid off 20 of its employees last Friday as a result of fewer orders from its customers, the company said.

Some of the main manufacturing industries served by Automated Conveyor Systems have decreased production recently.

The layoffs at ACS affected 16 temporary and four permanent employees, said Bill Wise, human resources manager. The plant now has about 190 employees.

Most of the affected workers were on second shift. ACS also canceled its third shift, moving those employees onto second shift, he said.

Wise said this is only the third time in 34 years that the local company has had layoffs.

“This is very … unusual for us,” Wise said. “We pride ourselves on stable employment for the work force here in Lynchburg.”

Automated Conveyor Systems Inc. makes material handling systems, such as conveyors, that are used in factories. Some of its major customers are in the corrugated packaging and paper industries, which have decreased production.

The company was founded in Lynchburg in 1975. Its first factory was on Kemper Street, but in the mid-1990s it built a much larger facility on Grist Mill Drive. At that time, the company had a first shift and a partial second shift.

Wise said the current layoffs were required because the company was getting fewer orders.

One of ACS’s local customers is the International Paper plant on Mayflower Drive. IP acquired the plant this year when it bought Weyerhaeuser’s containerboard and recycling business for $6 billion.

The local IP plant has not had major production or employment cutbacks. Manager Tom Orr said the plant had a layoff of about seven employees after the IP purchase, but it wasn’t market- related, he said. “It was more to get ourselves in line with International Paper’s expectations.”

The Lynchburg IP plant employs about 170 people.

In other areas, IP is cutting back a lot. In November the company announced it would shut down the paper machine at its facility in Franklin, affecting 50 employees.

Wise said IP’s Franklin plant was one customer of ACS.

Other companies in the paper and packaging industry are cutting back, saying the demand for corrugated packaging is falling.

Packaging Corporation of America said last week that it is cutting its production by 90,000 tons.

Wise said that ACS could see a turnaround in business early next year as some of its customers get new budgets for the new calendar year. “It looks like they’re going to spend some money,” he said. “…We know that a couple of our customers have shown some interest and are going to place some orders come the first of the year.”