Pella offers voluntary retirements, closes plant

PELLA, Iowa (AP) — Pella Corp. will offer incentives to employees who take early retirement or voluntarily leave the company and will close a plant in South Carolina as it tries to offset a decline in new home construction.

The Pella, Iowa-based company, which makes windows and doors, says in a news release Thursday that incentives will be offered to employees at plants in Carroll, Shenandoah, Sioux Center and Pella, as well as at plants in Macomb, Ill., and Portland, Ore.

The company also announced its plant in West Columbia, S.C., will close by the end of December. The plant employs 147 people.

Pella spokeswoman Kathy Krafka Harkema says the plant closure and workforce reductions are the result of the downturn in new home construction, which has fallen more than 70 percent since 2006.