Staff photo by Clay Schuldt The Elkay Wood Products plant in New Ulm will cease operations in early June, the company told its employees Friday. The plant is located at 15 Somsen St.

NEW ULM — The 105 employees at Elkay Wood Products were informed Friday that the company plans to cease manufacturing cabinet doors in the New Ulm Plant. The plant’s last day will be around June 8.

Elkay Wood Products is based out of Oak Brook, IL and has operated two separate dimension mill operation, one in New Ulm and the other in Mifflinburg, PA. According to the press released submitted by the company neither operation has been working at full capacity, which led to the decision to close the New Ulm plant and consolidate their cabinet door manufacturing operation at different location.

The company stated it was encouraging employees to go through the application process to apply for position at their four other cabinet assembly plants located in Indiana, Minnesota, Aurora and Oregon as well as the dimension mill in Pennsylvania.

“Ekay is committed to helping our employees in New Ulm find gainful employment after we cease our cabinet operation in the area,” company spokeswoman, Linda Carliste said. “We want to stress that this transition has nothing to do\ with the efforts of our New Ulm team. We sincerely hope that the majority of our employees choose to apply for roles within the company. We realize that this will not be an option for some, and we are doing all we can to assist them through the transition.”

The plant is scheduled to close around June 8. Between now and closing the company will offer job transition support through Minnesota’s Dislocated Worker Program. The company will also be setting up a an on-site computer center where employees can go to conduct online career searches, and provide additional group outplacement training onsite through the company’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

The news of the Elkay’s closing came as a surprise to many.

“It is going to be a big loss,” City Council President Charles Schmitz. He hope the city could find away to make the transition for the employees smooth.

City Manager Brian Gramentz commented that in the next weeks he, community development director David Schnobrich and new Assistant City Manager Chris Dalton will work with Elkay to mitigate the impact to the employees.

“Of course we will do whatever we can to help.” Gramentz said it was possible the city could find ways to link former Elkay employees up with other company’s in New Ulm looking to hire.

“They’ve been a good employer for many years,” said New Ulm Economic Development Coordinator Brian Tohal.

“I’m disappointed that any business has to close,” said Mayor Robert Beussman. “However, they said they will be working with other businesses looking for employees to help their employees find jobs.”

Beussman said when Elkay was built, it benefitted from state programs like JOB-Z, which provided incentives and tax benefits for businesses that pledged to create a certain number of jobs paying a certain amount. “Elkay made a lot of promises when they started, and they kept every promise,” the mayor said.

Elkay is in the process of reaching out to other employers in the area to explore options for holding an on-site job fair.

The Elkay Plant is located at 15 Somsen St. The facility is 59,280 square feet in size and was originally built in 2004. It is owned by Elkay.