Six months after Ministry of Defense notification that “following defense budget cuts,” and “a budgetary crisis,” “the Ministry of Defense will not issue orders for military boots from the company,” Israeli army boots manufacturer Brill Shoe Industries Ltd. (TASE: BRIL) is shutting down.
Brill announced that all the workers will be summoned to pre-layoff hearings, and in 30 days the layoffs will go into effect. The company reported the closing of its production line to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). About 100 employees are expected to lose their jobs. Brill emphasizes that, over the past six months, countless attempts have been made to save the production line and keep the factory workers employed, and to pay full salaries for time in which there was no active production. However, once the company realized that the Ministry of Defense is firm in its commitment to import military boots from the US, the decision was made to close the factory.
Brill Military and Outdoor division manager Shimon Horovitz said: “Employing these workers, most of whom are 50 or older, is what we have been looking at throughout the recent period. We fought the Ministry of Defense for them, but, in light of the Ministry’s refusal to place orders, and its insistence on ordering from the US, we have no choice but to close the production line. It pains and saddens us. The factory workers are very close to our hearts.”
In August 2011, Brill received notice from the Ministry of Defense that boot production would be moved overseas. In February 2012, the then Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni, demanded that the Ministry of Defense find a solution to bridge the gap between what exists and what it needs, in both professional and financial terms, and prevented the closing of the factory. Following this, the Defense Ministry made an additional procurement of just 63,000 pairs of boots.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 18, 2014
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