Char-Broil grill production to be moved to China

<p>The W.C. Bradley Co. announced Tuesday it will move the manufacture of its Char-Broil grills to China, threatening 500 full-time and 1,000 seasonal manufacturing jobs in Columbus.</p><p>Char-Broil plans to run its normal Columbus manufacturing of about 2 million grills next year and some in 2006, with all local manufacturing stopped by the end of that year.</p><p>"We expect there will be jobs lost, but we don't know how many to say at this point," W.C. Bradley chairman and CEO Steve Butler said.</p><p>Butler said pressure from Chinese manufacturers has been growing over the last four years. He said the decision was between moving the operation to China, where grills can be produced for 25 percent less, or "get out of the business."</p><p>Char-Broil, with sales last year of about $500 million, has been making grills in Columbus since 1949. Including sales, marketing and management positions, it has about 840 full-time employees, most of them in Columbus.</p><p>The company, the largest grill manufacturer in the United States, plans to phase out the first 250 full-time jobs this summer. Typically, seasonal jobs begin in late fall and end in May.</p><p>"We are not sure how many of those jobs we will rehire in 2006," Butler said. "At this point, we just don't know."</p><p>Employees at the Columbus and Opelika, Ala., plants were informed of the decision during a meeting Tuesday in the company's distribution warehouse next to the north Columbus plant.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2868160)</p>

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