Tyco to close Mt. Sidney plant next year

The Tyco Electronics plant in Mount Sidney will shut down by early next year, company officials said Wednesday.

While Tyco’s Pennsylvania headquarters would not verify the number of employees working in Mount Sidney, Augusta County said 138 were employed there as recently as August 2007.

Tyco spokesman Mike Ratcliff said the decision to close the Mount Sidney plant is due “to the global downturn.”

Ratcliff said application tooling products used with the company’s electronic components, primarily connectors, are made at the Mount Sidney plant.

The phaseout of the plant will start in October and should be finished by February of 2010, Ratcliff said. The work will be consolidated to Tyco’s Waynesboro, Pa., facility.

The most recent unemployment rate for Augusta County was unchanged in June, holding steady at 6.9 percent.

Tyco’s single largest product is electrical and electronic connectors and other electrical components. Worldwide, the company employs 75,000 people, Ratcliff said.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in June, Tyco said it had closed a number of manufacturing facilities since 2007.

The company said that by the end of the year it would have fewer than 100 manufacturing sites.

“As a result of the current economic environment, we have accelerated workforce reductions through the elimination of temporary workers, attrition and reductions in force,’’ the filing said. “In the first nine months of fiscal 2009, we have reduced our headcount by 22 percent, or approximately 21,000 positions.”

Late last month, Tyco declared a 16 cents per-share quarterly dividend that the company attributed to Tyco’s strong cash flow and solid balance sheet.