Seaford, DE, Feb. 18--Jobs at Invista's nylon plant in Seaford are secure, are in fact growing and shouldn't be negatively impacted by plans of prospective new owner Koch Industries Inc. to split its Delaware headquarters, an Invista official said.
According the Leader & State Register, Renee Phillips, site services manager at the Seaford Invista plant, said Koch's apparent intention to split its headquarters among other states would effect the company's job market in Wilmington, not Seaford.
"We expect all of our employees to get offers of employment with Koch, here in Seaford--their same current jobs," said Phillips. "They are talking about jobs in Wilmington, not here."
Phillips said it's her understanding that Koch's planned headquarter split would involve jobs moving from Wilmington to Wichita, KS.
The prospect of hundreds of jobs leaving Delaware drew response from Delaware GOP Executive Director David A. Crossan, who on Feb. 11 called on Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to release information about her administration's failure to retain 350 high-paying Delaware-based jobs.
Kansas-based Koch Industries Inc. is currently in the process of obtaining Invista, formerly DuPont Textiles & Interiors.
Last November, DuPont and Koch Industries announced a tentative agreement to sell Invista to two subsidiaries of Koch for $1.4 billion.
The closing was expected in the first half of 2004, subject to governmental approval.
"We are moving toward a target date of closing March 31," said Phillips.
Upon all regulatory approvals owned, Invista, currently a wholly subsidiary of DuPont, will be under Koch ownership.
"And we'll still be called Invista. It's just we are leaving DuPont and joining Koch," Phillips said.
Last October, Invista initiated a hiring campaign at the Seaford plant to fill approximately 40 positions--full-time manufacturing assistants and other vacancies.
"We are in the process of hiring 38 new employees," Phillips said. "We're bringing those folks in now. So we continued our hiring process in this whole transition. When we get all of the new hires in, we'll be at about 650 employees here at the site.
"And we expect every employee here at the Seaford site to get an offer of employment (with Koch)," said Phillips.
