SECO/Warwick Corp. ceased manufacturing heat-treating furnace systems in Meadville, PA, and is offering for sale the property there, aiming to lease the same office space for its sales and customer-support functions.
The company has not offered any official statement for its decision. A spokeswoman for the parent company, SECO/Warwick S.A. in Świebodzin, Poland, commented by email that it has no plans to comment on “internal decisions and changes", however she advised that a summary of the group’s plans may be provided in its 2019 annual report.
A local news report indicated that manufacturing ceased at the Meadville location in mid-December 2018. The same report quoted Keith Boeckenhauer, managing director for SECO/Warwick Corp., explaining that "international economic conditions in the industrial heat-treat equipment manufacturing sector have necessitated the discontinuance of fabrication and assembly work at the Meadville plant … ."
SECO/Warwick Corp. was formed in 1985 from the assets of the former Sunbeam Equipment Corp., and in 2002 formed a joint-venture with Trans-Vac, a Polish company. The current organization has operations and joint-venture businesses in Europe, Brazil, China, India, and the U.S. Its products include aluminum heat-treatment furnaces, controlled-atmosphere brazing furnaces, thermal heat-treatment furnaces, and vacuum heat-treatment furnaces, as well as vacuum metallurgy furnaces through its Retech subsidiary.