DAK Americas closing Navassa plant

NAVASSA, NC (WWAY) — Six-hundred people will soon be out of work after a Brunswick County factory closes its doors.

Charlotte-based DAK Americas says it will close its plant in Navassa this fall. The company’s President and CEO Jorge Young made the announcement earlier this afternoon at a news conference in Wilmington.

He says the Cape Fear Manufacturing Site in Navassa will close at the end of September. That means hundreds of full-time and contract workers will be out of work.

The plant makes PET resin, polyester staple fiber and raw materials for the other two.

Young says today has been a very difficult day, but he says the employees handled the news very professionally.

“Closing the Cape Fear Site will strengthen our ability to supply those markets in a more cost competitive way,” Young said.

Young says the company has put between one-hundred and $100 and $150 million dollars into the plant over the past 12 years.

The company says employees will get a severance package.