Eagle Ottawa assess US tannery

According to the Waterloo Iowa Courier, Eagle Ottawa are considering moving their automotive leather from Waterloo to Mexico and are looking at non automotive work to prevent the closure of the Waterloo tannery.‘We are contemplating the decision whether or not to exit the automotive hide processing business in Iowa and whether or not to source that work out of Mexico to a supplier in Mexico’, said Scott Landis, Eagle Ottawa vice president of human resources in North America.‘We haven’t made a final decision. At the same time, we are not talking about a plant closing at this time. We’re thinking about exploring whether we can do other non automotive work at the Iowa facility. Those options have yet to be defined.’The Waterloo plant currently employs 108 people and is the only Eagle Ottawa tannery remaining in the US. An older facility in Grand Haven, Michigan, closed in 2006.