CONWAY, Ark. — IC Bus announced it would layoff employees after a large order was canceled and slow sales tied to the recession forced the company to cut production in half.
Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley confirmed the layoffs but said the company had yet to announce how many employees would lose their jobs. Wiley added that the cancellation of one larger order and industry-wide slowing of sales led the company cut production from 16 vehicles per day to eight. Still, the company expects sales to turn around and jobs to return, but Wiley could not say when.
Calls to the Conway Development Corp. to discuss what the layoffs would mean for the region were not immediately returned.
Earlier this year, competitor Blue Bird Corporation announced temporary layoffs for February only “to manage its business and ensure the continued financial health of the company during this temporary downturn in the global economy.”
In October of last year, Thomas Built Buses announced it would layoff about 16 percent of its workforce due to a similar sales slide. This week, its German parent company Daimler said it 18,000 temporary workers would be laid off but could possibly be called back this summer.
