More than two dozen people are without a job after workers were laid off from Precision Cutting Specialties in Eunice.
Crest Industries, the parent company says the business is restructuring. Despite down-sizing, the company plans to keep a presence in St. Landry Parish.
Crest Industries Chief Administrative Officer John Doggett said the company never recovered after the downturn of the oil and gas industry. Now, the company is finding ways to stay in business.
PCS is a machining and fabrication company with a 25-year history in Eunice. The company says because they didn’t diversify during the downturn of the oil and gas industry, they’re now forced to make tough calls.
“If you don’t make decisions like this to try and re-purpose, restart and re-grow, you risk losing it all,” said Doggett.
PCS machining services will be discontinued to support the company’s steel fabrication. Crest says it will transfer assets to the Eunice facility and millions of dollars of additional capital investments.
“Our strategy is to reorganize it and try to build it again,” Doggett said.
The company plans to replace some equipment in Eunice and they plan to keep the facility open. We’re told PCS is hopeful they will be fully operational in the next four months.
“We have a lot of respect for the founder of PCS and his family,” Doggett said. “We have a deep respect for the community of Eunice. We want to continue supporting the community and that growth of the area.”
Doggett said a number of employees at PCS were offered other jobs within the company. The employees who were let go were offered a severance package with a month’s pay.
The company is hopeful in the coming years they will again be able to hire more people.
We did reach out to several employees who were let go, but they declined comment for our story.
