Over this past weekend, Colgate Palmolive (NYSE: CL) announced that its once-bustling Indiana toothpaste, shaving cream and cleansers factory would be closing its doors for good a few days before Christmas.While the factory's closing is not news to the remaining 115-200 employees still working there, according to Juanita Sneed, president of Local 15C of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, many of the remaining employees are still "struggling with the finality" of the eventual closing. It will hit home particularly hard since the closing will fall so close to Christmas.
The company first announced plans of the closing back in October 2005 and now says that the final closing will take place in two to three weeks. The factory, at its peak in the 1960s, employed as many as 1,500 workers. Its recent hourly wage was around $22.
This is another case where a company closing its doors will impact more than just the people that work in the factory. The town of Clarksville is preparing for the shutdown by cutting its expenses and keeping its budgets tight. In 2006 alone, the company paid more than $791,000 in property taxes.
On Friday, Colgate Palmolive traded up to a new 52-week high of $81.00 before ending the session at $80.08. The stock is currently trading up slightly in the premarket, with early morning traders pushing the stock up 0.1%, or $0.07.
[photo : Fleur-de-louis]
Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
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