Bardstown plant to close in spring

By Jenny Blandford

Landmark News Service

Intertec Systems in Bardstown will close its doors in late spring as part of a restructuring plan caused by a decreasing demand in the automotive industry.

“This is part of a corporate restructuring Johnson Controls announced on Sept. 3,” Johnson Controls spokeswoman Debbie Lacey said. “We are doing business in a challenging automotive industry.”

Employees were notified Tuesday the plant would close.

Intertec was created May 15, 1996, in an equal partnership between Johnson Controls Inc. and INOAC.

Intertec Systems produces instrument panels and floor consoles for automobiles. The 192,000-square-foot Bardstown plant at 900 Nutter Drive concentrates on producing high-end foam and skin instrument panels. The restructuring at Johnson Controls resulted in fees of $450 million to $500 million being spent in its 2008 fourth quarter, which ended Sept. 30. The charges related to decreases in the automotive industry and results in workforce reductions and plant consolidations.

“It will be a phased approach [at Intertec Systems] that will start this winter and is expected to be complete by late spring or early summer of 2009,” she said.

About 200 are employed at Intertec, which opened March 1987 under the ownership of Woodbridge INOAC.

Headquartered in Troy, Mich., Intertec Systems has six plants in North America, with the closest two in Holland, Mich., and Plymouth, Mich. Lacey said the company could not release employment details on relocation opportunities or retirement packages.