Manufacturing Plant to Close, Laying Off 80

A Minneapolis-based paint sprayer manufacturer will wind down Oakland operations in the coming months, laying off 80 workers at its borough plant, according to a report by Northjersey.com.

Wagner SprayTech Corp., which acquired the plant along with New Jersey company Titan Tool in 1999, will close its Oakland plant by mid-2014, sending 80 workers off with severance packages in the next 60 days.

“While necessary, business decisions that impact our employees’ lives are extremely difficult, and we have done an extraordinary amount of due diligence leading up to this hard decision,” company president John Berwick said in a statement to the Record.

There are currently 80 full-time and 40 temporary employees at the plant.

The company said that the plant’s operations will be shifted to its Plymouth, Minn. headquarters, according to the report.