After almost 50 years in British Columbia, a furniture company luggage and moves to the United States, putting 170 unemployed people.
PREPAC manufacturing closes its Delta factory and moves all operations to its North Carolina location.
The employee union believes that Donald Trump’s pricing war is at least in part to blame, but the company insists that this is not the case.
“We were in negotiations last year during several months of negotiations,” said Gavin McGarringe, regional director of western Unifor, in Global News.
“We concluded an agreement in mid-December and we had no notification that they planned to leave 60 days later. The only thing that changed was that the Trump administration was brought, we saw the chaos caused by these tariff threats, and now we see this value of private haye seize this opportunity to abandon Canadian workers, abandon the people who have accumulated the value of this company. “
In a declaration to Global News, the CEO of PREPAC, Nick Bozikis, said that the decision to centralize production in their North Carolina facilities was the product of several months of consideration and analysis, and started well before the tariff risks to present itself to the activities of PREPAC occur.
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“The past few years have been difficult for manufacturers of North American furniture with a global demand currently lower than that when we opened the installations of North Carolina in 2021. The closure of our Delta installation, British Columbia, is a necessary step which reflects the realities of PREPAC today and the prospects of the company in the future.”
The Bozikis added that they are proud of their inheritance in Delta, but the North Carolina facilities are located much closer to its largest clientele, which represents around 70% on the East Coast.
“We are committed to supporting a smooth transition for all affected employees,” he said.
“This decision was in no way a reflection on the quality of our British Columbia team.”
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