Orange, TX, August 27--Fifteen jobs were cut this week at Invista Sabine River Works west of Orange as the plant goes through restructuring, according to the Orange Leader.
A written statement from the company's public affairs department said Invista's restructuring plan will position the plant to compete better in an increasingly competitive global market.
Owner Koch Industries bought Invista for about $4.2 billion from DuPont this year. The sale was announced in November and completed in May, with Koch merging the former DuPont Textiles and Interior subsidiary with its own fibers unit, KoSa.
Koch's restructuring after the sale has hit a sister plant in Victoria harder.
In July, the Invista plant in Victoria announced about a 20 percent work force reduction affecting more than 200 jobs, according to The Victoria Advocate, a local newspaper in the south central Texas city.
Restructuring decisions are being made to reduce costs and to implement a rapid transformation to efficient work processes that will enable the site to be more competitive, Koch officials said.
"These decisions are extremely difficult but are necessary to ensure the long-term viability and success of Invista's Sabine River Works site and Invista globally," said Amy Hodges, Invista's Texas public affairs manager.
Hodges said in a telephone interview Wednesday that decisions affecting jobs are taken very seriously and are personal between the company and employees.
Details of severance packages weren't released.
Invista, based in Wichita, Kansas, is restructuring across the world because Invista is a global business, Hodges said.
Brothers Charles and David Koch control the company, which is the second-largest private company in the United States after Cargill. Hoover's Inc. estimates the company's 2003 sales at $40 billion.
Koch's operations through its numerous subsidiaries include asphalt, chemicals, energy, fertilizers, fibers and intermediates, finance, minerals, petroleum, pulp and paper, ranching, securities and trading.
Another Koch subsidiary owns three refineries that can process about 767,000 barrels of crude oil daily. The company also processes natural gas liquids and operates gas-gathering systems and pipelines in North America.
Invista here makes components for nylon, the synthetic fiber invented by DuPont chemists and then put on the market in 1940. DuPont's Invista subsidiary included nylon, polyester, spandex and Lycra fiber businesses.
Hodges wouldn't discuss any of Invista's financial particulars since becoming a member of Koch Industries family of businesses on May 1.
"We are working very hard and making progress during challenging market conditions," she said. "This includes making some painful decisions that will help position Invista to be a highly competitive organization which delivers value to its customers
