GAYLORD - In a stunning move Monday, Georgia-Pacific (G-P) Inc. corporate officials told first shift employees the particle board plant has closed permanently. Notices were sent to the remaining employees, 210 in all.

As many as 50 employees, salaried and hourly, will be kept on through April or early May to finish shipping out product

The Georgia-Pacific plant, which employs 210 people, has closed permanently, according to company officials. About 50 employees will remain working at the plant for about another month.

Company spokesperson James Malone said Monday morning the move is unrelated to the November takeover of G-P Inc. by Koch Industries of Wichita, Kan.

“This was totally driven by the particle board market,” said Malone, who was visiting Gaylord Monday. “There is so much more supply than demand. We've been looking at this facility for a year and a half.”

“Unfortunately, conditions in the particleboard market, combined with the high costs of raw material and energy at the Gaylord plant, made continuing operations no longer economically viable,” said Mike Rehwinkel, president of G-P's wood panels business, in a prepared press release issued Monday morning. “These decisions are always difficult to make. We have tried many options over time and our employees have worked hard to make Gaylord a sound operation. Despite these efforts, we just could not overcome the market conditions we faced.”

Four additional particle board facilities in Vienna, Ga., Russellville, S.C., Taylorsville and Louisville, Miss. will remain in operation. Malone explained each of the four operate at lower cost, using sawmill byproduct rather than whole-tree chips. Raw material used to produce the resin component used in particle board is shipped through the Gulf Coast, lessening transportation costs to the four southern plants.. A G-P resin plant in Grayling will be unaffected by Monday's announcement.

The present Gaylord facility, which opened in 1979 and replaced an earlier plant built in 1965, produces particle board panels used for office furniture and floor decking for manufactured housing. Georgia-Pacific purchased the plant in 1987. The operation is a part of the wood panels division that produces plywood, composite panels, engineered lumber and oriented strand board products.

Malone and Shockey said equipment and real property will be sold or absorbed into the remaining four particle board plants. There are no current plans to raze the building