Yuba construction plant shutting down

About 70 workers at Kbi Norcal on Rancho Road In south Yuba County are slated to lose their jobs in the next few months, according to an announcement Monday from the lumber and wall panel plant’s parent company, Building Materials Holding Corporation.

BMHC executives, who transferred the company's headquarters last week from San Francisco to Boise, Idaho, have said they will shut down the Rancho Road plant some time during the first quarter of 2009.

The job losses come on the heels of an announcement in November that Shoei Foods Corp. of Japan, which owns a prune-packing plant on Feather River Boulevard, plans to shut down and move its operations into the Sunsweet plant in Yuba City.

Shoei's move is expected to result in the loss of 120 jobs, according to Christi Dutcher of the Yuba County One Stop. One Stop helps counsel and retrain laid off workers, and assist in job searches.

Dutcher said the recent bankruptcy and closure of Mervyns Department Store resulted in the loss of 88 Marysville jobs.

"Every day we're holding our breath," she said. "We never know who's going down next."

"Everybody's disappointed and nervous," said Paul Jones, controller at the Shoei plant.

Roughly 50 of the 70 Kbi Norcal workers who stand to lose their jobs speak only Spanish, and the majority of the Shoei plant's employee base is Spanish-speaking only, according to Dutcher.

Last July, a consolidation effort by BMHC, which suffered record losses last year due to downturns in the housing market, consolidated Yuba County operations by shutting down Kbi Norcal Truss in Olivehurst. The move put 49 employees out of work.

The latest change will move nearly all BMHC distribution and manufacturing operations in the state to Modesto.

In addition, the company, which provides building and construction materials and services, will shut down Reno and Sparks facilities in northern Nevada, and consolidate operations at a Portland, Ore., plant with one in Vancouver, Wash.

Dutcher said One Stop representatives plan to visit the Rancho Road BMHC site next Monday to begin counseling the soon-to-be laid-off workers.

With losses of sales tax revenue from Mervyns' closure, she said, the area's economy seems to be sustaining blows from every direction.

"We're just praying for our community right now," she said.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com