Faircast to close in April, lay off 88 employees

Faircast Inc. in Fairfield has announced that it is closing and laying off its 88 employees.

The manufacturing business is located at 905 W. Depot Ave., and the news of its impending closure was made public on the Iowa Workforce Development’s website.

In accordance with the Iowa Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, businesses that employ between 25-99 employees must give 30 days notice of a plant closure or mass lay off. The announcement of Faircast’s closure was made on March 12, and the plant will close on April 13.

Faircast President Tim Neumann stated in an email Friday morning, March 15, that he had no media release to issue about the matter, and that the situation was still dynamic.

Faircast Inc. purchased its manufacturing plant from the previous owner Fairfield Castings in June of 2017. At that time of Fairfield Castings’ closure in the summer of 2017, it employed 221 workers. A group of 13 Fairfield businessmen banded together and purchased the business that summer, reopening it under the new name of Faircast Inc. When the business reopened, the number of employees had been cut in half to about 110.

According to a Fairfield Ledger story from 2018, Faircast, adjacent to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad line in the northwest part of town, actually got its start in Dexter, Iowa, where William H. George organized the Excelsior Thresher Tooth Company in 1904 to manufacture threshing machine accessories. George designed and built his first washing machine in 1910, and he sold his company in 1911 to a group of Fairfield businessmen headed by L.O. Gaines and R. Day Hunt. The company was moved to Fairfield in 1912, with George serving as general manager of The Dexter Company.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com