Caledonia manufacturer closes, dozens affected

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A Livingston County manufacturer has closed its doors, affecting dozens of employees.

Applied Energy Solutions LLC (AES), a Caledonia manufacturer of forklift battery chargers, this month told its 30 employees they were being laid off. The state Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification website does not list a closure notice for the company because it does not meet the threshold for reporting the layoffs.

Livingston County Economic Development Director William Bacon said he met with company owner Vern Fleming on Monday to discuss the future of the business.

“The crux of our meeting was what can we do to assist in whatever capacity,” Bacon said. “If it’s shut down and trying to put workers into other positions, if it’s to get the doors back open, whatever capacity, we wanted to be able to assess our options and what we can do to help him.”

Although Bacon declined to say what prompted the company’s closure, he said it sounded like “he’s assessing his options as well.”

An employee who was in the parking lot of the facility Wednesday said Fleming was “doing everything he could” to keep the doors open and staffers employed.

Attempts by the RBJ to reach Fleming on Wednesday were unsuccessful, and Caledonia Mayor Scott DiLiberto was not immediately available for comment.

“Obviously we would love the business to be right back where they were with flourishing orders and an overflowed inbox, but until that happens we’re just trying to make sure we’re here for whatever he needs and the workers,” Bacon said.

Bacon said he asked Fleming to keep the economic development agency apprised of any new developments.

“I would imagine that he and I will touch base again fairly soon,” Bacon said.

Applied Energy Solutions was established in 1949 as Caledonia Transformers, a manufacturer of transformers and power supplies. Later, the company manufactured power conversion equipment for a variety of military and commercial applications. In 1979, as Chloride Electro Networks, the company evolved into its present status as a manufacturer of industrial battery chargers for forklifts, pallet jacks and other battery-powered transportation equipment.

According to the company’s website, Vern Fleming purchased the business in 2000 and changed the name from CEN Electronics Manufacturing LLC to Applied Energy Solutions in 2001. Since 2001, AES had introduced five new battery charger model lines and the battery information transmitter, refined its North American distributor network and added three regional sales offices.

In 2016, AES had some 45 staffers at its 70,000-square-foot Caledonia plant.

Bacon said if the end result is the closure of the company, with no opportunity for succession, the Livingston County Office of Workforce Development will assist those displaced staffers in finding other positions.

“If it’s something where there’s a potential succession, obviously we’d want to try to bring them back to work. That’s where my office would come in, with any incentives we could offer to try and make it sustainable,” Bacon said. “If, as a retention project, Vern was able to restructure something and put a contract in place, or if somebody called and said I need 20 million of these units tomorrow and he was bringing back all 30 people, could we do something with the state to help him in that short term get going again, that’s where our role would be.”

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