Elliott Group to close Rostraver facility

By JACOB TIERNEY

Trib Total Media

Elliott Group is permanently closing its center in Rostraver Township, which employed about 40 people, the company announced Thursday.

“The decision to close our Belle Vernon facility was a difficult but necessary step to sustain Elliott’s auxiliary products portfolio while reducing the fixed costs associated with maintaining a separate, stand-alone operation,” CEO Michael Lordi said in a statement.

Some employees will be laid off, while others will be moved to the company’s main operation in Jeannette.

Elliott Group laid off 17 employees from the Rostraver center last month. The layoffs were announced as a temporary measure brought on by the collapse oil and gas prices caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

These 17 employees are included in the total count of 40 affected by the closure, according to the company.

Current and former employees said the facility was struggling long before coronavirus. New jobs slowed to a crawl, and the company began outsourcing much of the work formerly done by the Rostraver workers.

“The work was getting really bad, and they had been sending out work to somewhere in New Jersey,” said Phil Abbott, a former Elliott employee who was among those laid off last month. “We were just doing nothing for a couple weeks.”

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