Deere & Company announced more than 600 workers, at four locations, will be placed on indefinite layoff.
The official announcement came Friday, August 15, 2014.
The layoff announcement was issued two days after the company announced third quarter 2014 earnings dropped to $2.33 per share compared to $2.56 per share for the same period the previous year. Deere & Company net income also dropped from $2.73 billion in the first nine months of 2013 to $2.513 billion in the first nine months of 2014. Worldwide sales and revenue were also down.
“Deere’s third-quarter performance reflected moderating conditions in the global farm sector, which have negatively affected demand for farm machinery and contributed to lower sales and profits for our agricultural-equipment business,” said Deere’s chairman and CEO, Samuel Allen.
“Deere had hired several hundred manufacturing employees in recent years to meet increased demand for products manufactured in its Midwest U.S. factories,” said a statement about the layoffs from John Deere.
The indefinite layoffs announced August 15 affected workers at John Deere Harvester works in East Moline, Illinois; John Deere Seeding and Cylinder in Moline, Illinois and John Deere Coffeyville in Coffeyville, Kansas. John Deere Des Moines Works in Ankeny, Iowa was placed on extended shutdown in July, and workers at that facility were to be part of the group subjected to indefinite layoff.
Deere also implemented seasonal shutdown affecting most workers at John Deere Ottumwa Works in Ottumwa, Iowa.
