Butler County equipment firm files a closing notice

A Butler County company that was founded nearly a century ago is closing.

Highway Equipment Company Inc. filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry informing the state it will close and 67 people (64 full-time and three part-time employees) will be laid off at 22035 Perry Highway in Jackson Township, near Zelienople.

All of the company’s operations including affiliate companies — Highway Equipment Company of Ohio Inc., Highway Equipment Company of New Jersey Inc. and Highway Equipment Mid-Atlantic Inc. — are potentially going to close because the operations lack sufficient funding, the company said in the WARN notice, dated Sept. 23.

Some 46 people were expected to be laid off last month, the company wrote, and some of the remaining employees would be offered positions to wind down the company.

Highway Equipment Company is a sale, rental, parts and service provider of construction, landscaping, demolition, oil and gas, mining, quarrying and industrial material-handling machinery.

“The owner of HECO is actively seeking new financing and investors, as well as a buyer for its operations,” the WARN notice said. “The ownership of the affiliates has been and is also actively seeking to sell some or all of its affiliates. Should HECO’s and/​or the affiliates’ ownership be successful in any of these efforts, it is possible that the Zelienople office might not close or that the reduction in force at the Zelienople office will be fewer than 64 full-time persons.”