38 lose jobs at Playworld

By Rick Dandes
The Daily Item

April 17, 2009 07:30 am

— LEWISBURG — A weakened global and domestic economy has forced a Lewisburg recreational equipment manufacturer to lay off 38 employees.
Playworld owner Dale Miller said Thursday the furloughs, which took effect Wednesday, represent 14 percent of the company’s work force.
“We are just like everyone else,” he said. “We’re not immune to the current economic environment. Many of our customers are municipalities, schools, government-funded day care centers and they’re having a tough time in this economy. Some of them don’t even have the funds to cut their own lawns.”
Playworld President Matt Miller said: “We were hopeful that we could weather the current environment by making cuts to our expenditures without impacting people. Unfortunately, the trend in order rates no longer allowed us to maintain that position.”
Dale Miller said many of Playworld’s overseas customers are experiencing difficult times as well.
“We are continually on the phone with our offices in other countries,” Miller said. “We have an office in England, and things are really bad there.”
Conference calls to global clients and offices are scheduled for today and next week to gauge the economic forecast for the rest of the year, Dale Miller said.
“We told our employees about this Wednesday morning,” Dale Miller said. “We wanted to make this decision earlier rather than later. The cut for us is deep. The people at Playworld were saddened, but supportive.”
Dale Miller was hopeful that stimulus funding from the federal government would help improve available resources allocated to recreation and fitness.
Playworld hopes to bring the furloughed workers back as soon as possible, Dale Miller said.
“This has been a tough thing for us,” he said. “I started this 40 years ago this November. And this is the first layoff we’ve ever had.”
The employees who were released were chosen based on seniority and the demand of services required to serve Playworld’s customer base. Before the layoff, Playworld’s work force was 281 — all in Lewisburg.
Playworld, a family owned business in its third generationn, was honored this spring as one of the Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce’s “Businesses of the Year” and also has been ranked as “One of the top 100 Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania.”
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