71% income drop leads to Tampa plant closing, 250 layoffs

Kimball Electronics, an Indiana manufacturer, is closing its plant in Tampa and will lay off 250 employees after reporting a 71% decrease in its net income earlier this week.

The company announced the job cuts in an earnings report issued Monday and followed up with a letter posted to the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification database Wednesday afternoon.

The layoffs, according to the letter, which was sent to meet federal WARN requirements, are expected to begin Jan. 5 and to be fully completed by June 30.

Richard D. Phillips, Kimball’s CEO, says in the earnings report that it was shutting down the facility at 13700 Reptron Blvd. as part of “a plan to leverage the capacity in our global footprint and further streamline the operating structure.”

Production is expected to cease by the end of the year and the plant will close in the first quarter of the coming fiscal year, Phillips says. The work will be shifted to facilities in Mexico and Jasper, Indiana where the company has its headquarters.

“This decision is based on the preferences of our customers, our outlook for U.S. manufacturing, and an objective to improve the company’s competitive positioning in the market, strengthen the balance sheet, increase liquidity, and improve financial flexibility.”

According to the earnings report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, Kimball’s net income fell 70.6% to $3.154 million when compared with the same three-month period last year. That followed a 62.2% drop in its annual net income for the most recent fiscal year according to an August earnings report.

Kimball Electronics is a global electronics and diversified contract manufacturer with operations in the U.S., China, Mexico, Poland, Romania and Thailand.

Its 150,000-square-foot Tampa facility offers electronics manufacturing services as well as rapid prototyping services, the company says on its website.

In the earnings report announcing the closure, Phillips says the plant also supplied ventilators “to those in need” during the pandemic.