Thomas Equipment, a Milwaukee-based manufacturer of skid-steer loaders and attachments, is closing its Busan, South Korea, facility in order to pay off company debt.
The Thomas board of directors decided to sell the plant after it failed to meet financial and production goals for the previous year. The facility, which primarily designed and produced Model 155 skid-steer loaders, also housed sales and operations for wholly owned business units of Pneutech. Technical and engineering issues beset production of the Model 155, and attempts to normalize proved unsuccessful with no generated material revenue, the company said.
Following the sale of the South Korea facility, equipment will be produced at a Thomas plant in New Brunswick, Canada. “Based on our analysis we will make a series of minor changes at our NB, Canada, plant that will significantly increase our production capacity by changing our work flow and approach to production,” said William Davis, chief operating officer of Thomas Equipment.
