CommScope Set To Lay Off 110 From Omaha Facility

CommScope, a top supplier of coaxial cable, plans to lay off approximately 110 of its more than 500 employees at its connectivity solutions manufacturing facility in Omaha, Neb.

The layoffs will occur in March and reduce the facility's workforce to fewer than 400 people. Worldwide, CommScope has about 11,500 employees. The company is not providing an estimate on the financial impact of the layoffs, said corporate communications director Rick Aspan.

CommScope said it also analyzing options for the facility, including potentially shutting it down and relocating production to lower-cost locations.

"A combination of difficult circumstances-including facility underutilization, high labor costs, customers' spending slowdown and their demand for lower-cost products-is causing CommScope to consider all options for serving our customers, while simultaneously protecting the profitability of our business," CommScope president and chief operating officer Eddie Edwards said in a statement. "These actions are difficult yet unavoidable, and we regret the potential impact on our employees.

In the past two years, CommScope noted, it has reduced its global workforce and closed facilities in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, England, Italy and the U.S. to reduce costs.

Hickory, N.C.-based CommScope, in addition to coax cable, also sells cabinets for DSL and FTTN applications as well as radio frequency subsystem solutions for wireless networks.