After nearly 60 years in Yonkers, Precision is consolidating its operations to its plant in Greenville, S.C.
The announcement came Jan. 21 at the valve manufacturing plant on Nepperhan Avenue.
“We”™ve been working with them for over a year to get them to stay,” said Mayor Philip Amicone. “He was committed to stay,” referring to John Abplanalp, son of company founder and inventor of the aerosol valve Robert Abplanalp, “but it came down to dollars and cents.”
A message left with John Abplanalp was not returned at press time.
The company intends to close by the end of May.
Amicone said that the city, as well as New York state cannot compete with the lower cost of doing business in the southern states.
“Taxes, energy; everything is higher up here,” the mayor said.
Patrick Foye, the former downstate Empire State Development Corp. chief, had met with John Ablanalp, but since he resigned during the scandal involving Gov. Eliot Spitzer, no one from the state has been trying to keep the company in the city, Amicone said.
The city had been trying to get Precision into a federal empowerment zone, but it was not enough to induce the company to stay. The company was located in n Empire Zone.
With the cost of power and its high taxes, “New York state is not just competitive,” Amicone said.
Since starting the company in September 1949, the elder Abplanalp had always wanted to keep a plant in Yonkers as his company grew to become an international leader in the industry. In deference to his father, John kept the company in the city. After the founder”™s death in 2003, John did a long study of consolidating operations, Amicone said. “He could consolidated down there or up here,” Amicone said. “But all data indicated that the potential for making a significant profit was down there.”
The exact number of workers at the Yonkers plant was not immediately available, but Amicone said at one point the plant had 400 jobs.
The future of the 150,000-square-foot building is up in the air. The mayor said that Ablanalp had indicated to him that the company might keep its headquarters in Westchester County.
Amicone was to testify last week before the Joint Budget Committee in Albany. He said the closing of Precision would be at the top of his agenda.
