Owner: SSI plant is not closed

Structural Systems’ Culpeper facility is not closed, according to the business’ owner, but manufacturing operations have moved to the company’s headquarters in Maryland.

Bruce Gordon, owner of the Thurmont, Md.-based company, wanted to clarify that the Culpeper manufacturing and distribution center of housing materials has not shut down, but is operating on a “skeleton crew” of clerical and technical workers.

“We have not closed,” Gordon said. “I don’t use the word ‘closed.’ In our sense, we’ve idled the plant. We fully expect to open the plant back up, and the sooner the better.

“We have contracted backward in proportion to the market. Obviously, financially, the prudent thing is to not run that plant at a loss when I can pull it back.”

Gordon said the reload center at the Culpeper plant is still operational, but because of the slump in the housing market, “It’s not like there’s a lot of activity there.”

“We’re keeping people there at a cost because the activity doesn’t necessarily support the people,” he said. “But we’re not going to just walk away from that relationship with the (clients) using the reload center.”

Gordon would not say exactly how many of Structural Systems’ 130 to 175 employees were out of a job, but said he hoped to rehire his workers when the plant reopens in the indeterminate future. He attributed the miscommunication about his plant being on the market to the fact that he is trying to lease 60,000 square feet of the 175,000-square-foot facility.

“We’re not for sale,” he said. “All the equipment is still there. It’s idle, waiting for the light to turn green. There was some misdirected information that came about because of the lease.”

As for the company’s two other Maryland locations, Gordon said Structural Systems could not keep its Elkton location open because the two major clients’ sales “have gone in the tank.” The Frederick location is apparently in flux because of “lots happening there that have nothing to do with the market,” Gordon said, such as the restructuring of nearby roads.

The headquarters in Thurmont has maintained two shifts to handle the market and is “still running strong,” Gordon said.

“Financially, we’re in good shape,” he said, “which is in and of itself a victory. But if I continue to keep things in Culpeper open just to keep it open and have people sitting on their rear ends, that would not be a good business decision.”

Catherine Amos can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .