Klein Tools To Close Plants In Skokie, Roselle
LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. (CBS) -- The State of Illinois struck a deal to keep Sears and the CME Group in Illinois this week, but meanwhile, local tool manufacturer has confirmed that it will be taking some jobs out of Illinois.
Klein Tools told CBS 2 this week that it will keep its headquarters and manufacturing facility in Lincolnshire. But the manufacturer will be closing its plants in Skokie and Roselle over the next year to year and a half, and transferring their operations to Texas.
The company says it hopes many employees at the two plants will accept transfers to the new Mansfield, Texas, facility.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced the deal to bring Klein Tools to Texas, which involved a $2.8 million tax subsidy to create 585 jobs, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. But at the time, there was no indication about whether those jobs would be moved from Chicago.
Klein Tools was founded in downtown Chicago in 1857 by German immigrant Mathais Klein.
The Skokie plant is located at the northwest corner of Touhy Avenue and McCormick Boulevard, just outside the Chicago city limits. It has been in operation for 60 years and used to serve as the company's corporate headquarters, but is now only a manufacturing plant for pliers, bolt cutters, fish tapes and other tools.
The Roselle plant has been operating since 1989 and makes wire strippers, pliers and adjustable wrenches that Klein says are "recognized as the world's finest."
Klein tells the Sun-Times that the Illinois corporate tax hike had nothing to do with the decision to move the two plants to Texas.
