The Greene County Partnership and Fulflex, Inc., will be hosting an "Employment Opportunities Fair" on Wednesday, April 16, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Fulflex facility.

The event has been arranged for the 125 employees of the company whose jobs will be eliminated in two "ramp-down" operations on May 2 and June 30.

Fulflex, a leading manufacturer of thin-gauge specialty elastic products and custom mixing services, announced in late February that the company planned to eliminate 125 jobs, with plans to expand its thermoplastic product in the local plant, utilizing only a small portion of the present employees.

John Depuy, president of Fulflex USA, gave as reasons for the move that "Fulflex now has four facilities worldwide. With recent increases in productivity and improved yield per application, the company is now able to produce in three facilities what previously took four."

Depuy said in an interview with The Greeneville Sun that most of the production currently being done in Greeneville will be shifted to Fulflex's plant in Singapore, with a small proportion going to a Fulflex plant in Vermont and "about 1 percent" of the work going to Fulflex's plant in India.

Partnership President Randy Harrell said, "Prior to formally releasing the news of the impending ramp-down, Partnership staff met with Fulflex officials to begin planning an event that would assist these displaced workers in making the transition to other local companies."

"We began contacting some of the local companies that we knew were looking for stable employees with a good work ethic, and at this point, have eight companies that have made verbal commitments to participate."

The Partnership is still recruiting local businesses and industries to participate in the event. Any company executive that is interested should call the Partnership, at 638-4111, to reserve a space at the employment fair.

According to Harrell, Fulflex is making plans to enable each of their soon-to-be displaced employees to attend the fair during the appointed hours.

Information from the company reveals that approximately 93 percent of these employees are local residents with an average of seven years of service with Fulflex.

Fulflex executives have stressed that their current employees are very stable, and are willing to work additional hours and days during the week.

Positions that will be eliminated include those of finishing supervisors, shift managers, a quality manager, project engineers, customer service representatives, an accountant, shift managers, shipping personnel, maintenance and production personnel, plant schedulers and clerical workers.

Any business or industry that is interested in participating in the fair may secure an area for the event by calling Randy Harrell at the Partnership, at 423-638-4111, or by e-mailing rharrell@greenecop.com.