Layoffs Loom at Van Nuys Plant

Clover Imaging Group is eliminating the second shift at its Van Nuys toner cartridge manufacturing plant as the work has been relocated to Mexico. About 205 employees at the San Fernando Valley location are being laid off effective in June, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed on April 22 with the state Employment Development Department. Luke Goldberg, executive vice president of global sales and marketing for Clover, said one shift of workers remains at Van Nuys. The company declined to state how many employees are at the Valley plant. “We are still manufacturing in the Van Nuys facility just not at the volume we had been because we have shifted work to Mexicali,” Goldberg said. Clover, in Hoffman Estates, Ill., acquired the Van Nuys plant in July 2014 when it had been owned by Micro Solutions Enterprises, or MSE. The plant had been operating under the MSE name until February when it became Clover’s California operation, Goldberg said. MSE had operations in the Valley for about 20 years, half of those in Van Nuys. The company remanufactures used printer toner cartridges for continued use by customers. Clover is one of the last remaining toner cartridge remanufacturers in the United States as most of the competition has moved to Asia or Mexico, Goldberg said. Transitioning work to the Mexicali plant is necessary to keep pace, he added. “We have major competition from offshore and this is a step that helps us remain competitive for our customers,” Goldberg said. Clover also has a distribution center in Chatsworth.