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Woodgrain Millwork’s Prineville plant may see a temporary increase in production.
The devastating earthquake in Chile last week could mean a temporary increase in production for a Prineville remanufacturing plant.
Woodgrain Millwork's sister plant in Los Angeles, Chile, was damaged in the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that left hundreds dead and millions homeless in the South American Country last Saturday.
According to Prineville Woodgrain Millwork General Manager Benji Barron, orders that were going to be on hold until the Chile plant gets back on its feet will be taken care of by Woodgrain's plants across the country.
"We're stepping up and putting some extra orders into the plant to fill those needs," Barron said. "We don't anticipate a huge change in the number of employees that we have. There will be some overtime and there may be a few people hired . . . We do have some people on layoff that we can bring back as well that may come in and work for a short period of time until Chile is running again."
The effect will be an increase in production volume at the Prineville plant for a short period of time, Barron says. Both the Prineville and Chile plants produce the same products, including mouldings, casings, bases and jambs.
Woodgrain's Chile plant employs between 600 and 800 workers, plus another 300 at an adjacent door plant, which will not affect the Prineville facility. The Prineville plant, on the other hand, employs 180, Barron said.
All employees at the Chile plant were put out of work when the quake hit, but Barron says 400 were back at work on Wednesday getting the plant ready to re-open next week.
The damage sustained to the Chile plant is still being assessed, Barron says. Fortunately, there were no major injuries or deaths at the plant during the quake.
"We spent the first couple of days making sure that our employees were safe and finding ways to help them and their families," Barron said.
Barron says part of the Chile plant should be up and running by next week.
The increase in production will help for the time being, but Barron says despite the economy, the Prineville plant has seen plenty of work lately. According to Central Oregonian archives, Prineville Woodgrain laid off 32 employees in January 2009.
"We don't have the volume we'd like to at this facility, but actually, our employees are working overtime and busy for the number of people that we have," he said.
