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Colorado Springs company lays off 105 workers [The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)](Gazette (Colorado Springs, CO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 25--Diamond Wire Material Technologies, a diamond wire cutting business in Colorado Springs, laid off 105 employees -- about a third of its workforce -- on Friday, the result of one of its prime customers filing for bankruptcy earlier this month. Employment and production at the Diamond Wire operation at 3505 N. Stone Ave. had ramped up to more than 350 workers over the last year, thanks to a contract that Meyer Burger landed with New Hampshire-based GT Advanced Technologies Inc. But GTAT filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Oct. 6. The contract was worth $40 million, Meyer Burger said in a news release issued in December. Meyer Burger didn't identify the customer then, but on Friday, company spokesman Werner Buchholz confirmed GTAT was the customer that awarded the contract to Diamond Wire, whose technology is used by the solar, optical and semiconductor industries. "Over the preceding 12 months, the Meyer Burger Group has increased its personnel at the site in Colorado Springs for a specific project with GTAT in the area of slicing sapphire with industrial diamond wire saws and diamond wire materials," Meyer Burger said in the release. "From the legal proceedings to date and customer discussions, Meyer Burger assumes that GTAT will be unable to continue the project as planned." In documents filed as part of its bankruptcy, GTAT listed Diamond Materials Tech Inc., which has the same address as Diamond Wire, as one of its 20 largest creditors. The documents say GTAT owes the company $2.01 million. Meyer Burger noted in the news release that the Colorado Springs operation will retain about 200 employees who will continue to make diamond-coated wire used to slice photovoltaic wafers for the solar power industry. The cutback reduces Diamond Wire's work force to slightly higher than where it was before getting the GTAT contract, Buchholz said. In addition to filing for bankruptcy, GTAT announced Thursday it will exit the synthetic sapphire glass manufacturing business that used Diamond Wire's cutting technology. GTAT was supposed to manufacture the glass for Apple Inc., which advanced GTAT $439 million to buy equipment. But GTAT had trouble getting its plant running. Apple released a statement Thursday saying that it "put a lot of effort into an ambitious new sapphire manufacturing process with GTAT which is not ready for production." Meyer Burger said in August that the GTAT contract and a recovering solar power industry helped it bounce back in the first half of the year after two years of plunging sales. The company's revenue for the six-month period was up 42.7 percent from a year earlier to $135.5 million, though losses widened during the same period by nearly $8 million to $92.5 million as Diamond Wire bought raw materials, installed equipment and ramped up production for the GTAT contract. ___ (c)2014 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) Visit The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.) at www.gazette.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |