Deere to Close Canadian Facility, Consolidate Forestry Production

In an move supporting a companywide effort to create more efficient business operations, Deere & Co., announced this week that it will close its Woodstock, Ontario manufacturing facility later this year. Production from the Canadian factory will be moved to existing operations in Davenport and Dubuque, Iowa. The Woodstock facility manufactures full-tree forestry products for Deere’s Worldwide Construction & Forestry Division.

Deere said its decision to consolidate this portion of its forestry equipment production was made after an internal competitiveness study. The move will reduce costs and further improve product delivery times, as well as enable plans to expand Deere's line-up of full-tree forestry products.

In Woodstock, employees were told of the plan in meetings late this week although it is anticipated no one will leave the workforce prior to April 30. Deere said 325 employees work at the plant and some would be expected to work until the closure in September.

Financially, Deere is expected to see pretax charges of about $60 million over the next 12- to 18-month period, the company said.