Locke Insulators announced it will close its 24-acre waterfront manufacturing facility at 2525 Insulator Dr. in Port Covington. The facility is located between Nick’s Fish House and the site of Under Armour’s future world headquarters.
Responding to a dramatic reduction in demand for its high-quality, high voltage porcelain station post insulators in North America over the past decade, Baltimore-based Locke Insulators, Inc. announced today that it plans to close its manufacturing facility.
Locke Insulators has focused exclusively on manufacturing the high-quality, high voltage porcelain station post insulators. The long-lasting insulators are used primarily by electric utilities, which increasingly have turned to lower cost, imported porcelain insulators.
The closure of the manufacturing facility – which is scheduled to take place over the next few months – will affect 84 production-related employees and 24 salaried workers currently employed by Locke Insulators.
With Locke’s shutdown, NGK-Locke, Inc., an affiliated Maryland company, will rely on other manufacturing facilities to continue to sell and supply high-quality, high voltage porcelain station post insulators to their customers.
Although Locke made major capital investments in its manufacturing facility over the past 10 years, it continued to experience a significant decline in market demand for its high-quality products. This, coupled with the high fixed costs required to operate its manufacturing facility, ultimately led to the decision to cease the manufacturing operations.
Management remains committed to supporting Locke’s dedicated employees throughout this difficult transition. They will consider the assistance to be provided to employees losing their jobs after the union representing Locke’s production employees has had an opportunity to review the shutdown of the manufacturing operation.
NGK-Locke’s sales team will continue to work on site in the immediate future. NGK-Locke still manufactures products in Japan, China, and Virginia Beach and has several offices throughout the country.
Under Armour Founder and CEO Kevin Plank’s Sagamore Development has no comment on the news and has stated in the past that it was not in negotiations to acquire the property. Sagamore Development is underway on a multi-decade, 266-acre, $5.5-billion redevelopment of Port Covington.
The Locke Insulators site is the largest parcel in Port Covington not under Sagamore’s control. W. Peninsula Dr. provides access to both Locke and Under Armour’s new facility. Locke is also adjacent to Sagamore’s Baltimore Yacht Basin marina and The Baltimore Sun’s 60-acre printing facility property, which is owned by Sagamore.
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Rendering courtesy of Sagamore Development (Click to enlarge.)
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