Industrial Rayon Corporation: Celebrating a Special Workplace

Newspaper Articles About Industrial Rayon

Shutdown Final for IRC Fibers in Painesville (August 6, 1980)

By Paul O’Donnell, Telegraph staff reporter
The Telegraph, Painesville, Ohio

Employees of IRC Fibers, Painesville Township, lost their jobs Tuesday when plant management announced the 43-year-old company will be closed permanently.

The 630 acre Bacon Road site will be put up for sale, displacing 350 hourly and salaried workers. The move was made, according to Plant Manager E.J. Scharf, because of a drop in demand for polyester tire yarn used in tire manufacturing. . . .

. . .Scharf said he did not know how much American Cyanamid Co. of New Jersey IRC's parent corporation, will lose from the plant's termination of operation.

An American Cyanamid spokesman said the closing will have a "meaningful impact on Cyanamid's textiles and Fibers Division earnings," but added it is unlikely the closing would have an impact on the company's total yearly earnings.

A division of American Cyanamid since 1969, IRC produces polyester yarn that goes into making textile body pile for tires. Named Industrial Rayon Corp. when built in 1937, it was the second largest employer in Lake County in the 1950s with 2500 workers.