by Kevin Baskins, Des Moines Register
Gates Corp. has announced it will be closing its Newton facility in November, laying off 41 workers.
The closure was posted on Iowa’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, site. No reason was given for the closure, but Gates, a manufacturer of power transmission and fluid power solutions based in Denver, has been a supplier of hydraulic hoses to John Deere, which has cut thousands of jobs in Iowa and Illinois in recent months amid a downturn in agriculture-related manufacturing.
Gates did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. Frank Liebl, executive director of the Newton Development Corp., said he had been concerned about the company because of its ties to Deere.
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