@CintiaLopez916 on Twitter
After 41 years, Gayle Manufacturing Company is closing its factory doors in Woodland and moving to a newly built facility in Idaho.
Gayle’s Woodland facility is scheduled to close in May, taking all those employees who want stay with the company and paying moving expenses, explained Vice President David DeBlasio.
“Within four months of deciding (to move four years ago) we told everybody and said ‘this is our plan and you’re all going to be invited,’” DeBlasio said.
Gayle’s new 166,200-square-foot production facility in Caldwell, Idaho, sits on 50 acres, according to the Idaho Press-Tribune. The facility in Woodland has a 70,000-square-foot building on 16 acres.
A lack of space in Woodland was one of the deciding factors in the move, DeBlasio explained.
“That’s part of the reason we needed to build a new plant,” he added. “It’s not a good flow for structural steel manufacturing.”
DeBlasio said that because Gayle is an employee-owned company, the workers in Woodland were included in the decision making process to close up shop.
Gayle’s new Caldwell factory is already up and running, according to the Sacramento Business Journal and will staff over 100 employees.
When Gayle first opened its doors 50 years ago, it was a one-man machine shop run by Jim DeBlasio. He provided machine shop services, tool and die work, punch press and light production manufacturing.
Since then the company has grown, producing the steel used in the building of what is now Sleep Train Arena, Bank of the West — known as 500 Capitol Mall — and the Stockton Arena, along with other buildings.
“We do buildings for Uber, Google and other people,” DeBlasio added. “We will essentially double the manufacturing capacity that we have in Woodland and Napa,” by moving to Idaho.
Gayle’s Woodland plant was built in 1977, DeBlasio said, and he thanks Woodland for making the success of the company possible.
“We’ve been a big supporter of Woodland and Woodland has been a big supporter of us,” DeBlasio said. “The city allowed us to become a substantial company. We’re very grateful to Woodland.”