Chief Automotive Moving Neb. Production To Ind.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — Chief Automotive Technology will be closing its Grand Island plant and consolidating operations at an Indiana facility, a company spokesman said Monday.

The closure will cost the jobs of 66 people in Nebraska.

Spokesman Steve Frisbie said Chief Automotive will remain a distinct company but become part of owner Dover Industrial Product's new Vehicle Service Group. The new group includes Rotary Consolidated, which makes vehicle service and storage lifts at its headquarters plant in Madison, Ind.

Grand Island production will end July 17, Frisbie said, but sales and service work will continue in Grand Island probably until the end of the first quarter 2010.

He said the plant's 66 workers will have a shot at other jobs for Dover or will be offered a severance package. Other company employees — mostly for sales and service — are based elsewhere in the country and around the world, Frisbie said.

The plant closure is being forced in part by the nation's ailing economy, Frisbie said, which in turn has forced the company to look for savings and other synergies through consolidation.

Chief Automotive makes collision repair and other vehicle repair equipment. It was founded in 1972 as a division of Chief Industries. It was bought by Dover Industries in 1988.

Dover Industrial is a division of New York-based Dover Corp., a publicly traded corporation that is composed of more than 40 separate businesses.