Otscon, Inc. a parking brake manufacturing company, announced Wednesday plans to close its Columbia facility in October after 36 years of operation.
About 220 employees will lose their jobs, according to a news release from the Central Workforce Development Region. Full-time workers will be provided with severance packages and outplacement support, the release said.
Otscon, Inc. is located at 50 N. Rangeline Road in north Columbia.
Blake Morris, human resources manager for Otscon, said the company will treat the last months of operation as business as usual, while also providing employees resources for resume building and job interview preparation.
Otscon will also partner with the Columbia Chamber of Commerce and Missouri Job Center to help employees find new jobs, Morris said.
“We’re also going to be staging a job fair,” he said. “We’ll have local companies and will be working with the Chamber of Commerce to organize a platform of companies to interview, and hopefully do a warm handshake and transition people off to a new position.”
Morris said the Columbia facility includes a diverse staff with employees from other countries, that don’t speak English.
“We’ve put together a group of Afghanistan refugees, as well as those from South Africa,” Morris said. “We have interpreters on every one of our [assembly] lines to help them communicate effectively.”
But Morris said it could be even harder for those employees to find new jobs.
“We’ll be partnering up with City of Refuge as well as Catholic Charities (of Central and Northeast Missouri) to make this more seamless,” he said.
Otscon, Inc. makes several car parts.
Otscon makes car parts such as brake pedals, z-shaped arms, and emergency brake levers. These parts are used in Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Subaru, Acura, Infiniti and Yamaha vehicles.
Otscon said the decision to close was made because of “unprecedented challenges,” including fluctuations in market demand, supply chain disruptions and increasing operational costs.
The company also said it took longer than expected to bounce back after the COVID-19 pandemic and global economic conditions that hit the vehicle industry.
Morris said the company will move its facility to an already established facility in the country of Mexico.
The Columbia facility opened in 1988 on North Rangeline Road as a joint venture between its parent company, Otsuka Koki Company, which is based out of Japan, and Orscheln Industries. Otsuka Koki later bought out Orscheln’s stake.
