Midstate Berkshire has laid off 70 employees and plans to consolidate its Waterville plant into its Winslow facility by the end of the year due to a downswing in three crucial markets.
The Kennebec Journal reported that the layoffs represent 30% of the Massachusetts-based company’s 250-person workforce between both communities.
The company was founded in Winslow in the early 1970s as Mid-State Machine Products. It was then merged with a Massachusetts-based company in 2011 and in 2014 was acquired by Texas-based private equity firm Insight Equity Holdings LLC.
Midstate, which made the announcement Thursday, said a decline in the gas, power generation and defense markets caused the layoffs. “The market conditions are severe — we’ve seen a 30% decrease in our key markets over the past year,” the company’s CEO Duane Pekar said in a press release.
Source: Kennebec Journal