Ethanol plant builder lays off 105 BY PHYLLIS JACOBS GRIEKSPOOR The Wichita Eagle [Kansas, US] Wednesday April 16, 2008 Page 6B
ICM Inc., the nation's leading designer of ethanol plants, has laid off 105 employees.
ICM officials blamed the layoffs on a sluggish economy that has weakened the U.S. dollar and made it difficult to find lenders to fund domestic projects.
The layoffs affect multiple departments at ICM, which had been on a rapid growth curve over the past several years. Before the layoffs, ICM had more than doubled the size of its headquarters in Colwich, [Kansas] building two new office projects. It employed 671 workers before the layoff.
Affected workers were notified Tuesday and were given information on extended benefits and severance pay.
"This is in no way a reflection of the valued work performed by our employees," said Dave Vander Griend, president and chief executive of ICM. "During recent quarterly employee luncheons, I have addressed the volatile market conditions that have persisted, such as commodity market concerns and the projects slowdown."
Ethanol companies have faced challenges over the past several months as prices for corn – ethanol's primary feedstock – have doubled. Construction costs also have risen rapidly, driven in part by higher petroleum products and transportation costs.
Several projects have had construction slowdowns and others have been delayed by difficulty in securing financing. One Kansas company, Orion Ethanol at Pratt, has closed amid fInancial problems.
The expansion of ethanol production, forecast to be more than 2 billion gallons in 2007, was actually only about half that.
ICM was founded in 1995 and has designed and engineered more than 75 ethanol plants in the United States and Canada. There are currently 25 projects under construction that use ICM technology.