Jamestown Metal Products is pictured at its Blackstone Avenue facility in Jamestown. P-J file photo by Eric Tichy

A Jamestown manufacturer in operation for more than 70 years announced it will cease operation by September.

Jamestown Metal Products, a division of the Tennessee-based Institutional Casework Inc., told employees Wednesday that it was closing its 178 Blackstone Ave. plant. Production of painted and stainless steel furniture and equipment will end by Sept. 4.

Workers were gathered Wednesday morning and notified of the upcoming layoffs. A letter detailing the closure from Joseph Crews, human resources director for Institutional Casework Inc., and given to employees was obtained by The Post-Journal.

“The management of Jamestown Metal Products LLC, a division of Institutional Casework, has determined that the best direction of the company is to close its facility, located at 178 Blackstone Avenue, Jamestown,” the letter reads. “The closing of this plant will be permanent and will constitute a filing under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The plant will stop production on September 4, 2020.”

In February, the company announced it planned to lay off 37 of its 77 workers at its Jamestown facility by May 8. At the time, Crews said the plant would begin to “refocus” on producing fume hoods and other metal products core to its business strengths. Institutional Casework Inc. purchased Jamestown Metal in 2009.

“We are trying to look at the products we make at that plant to make sure they are profitable,” Crews said previously. “We felt this was the best thing to do to stay profitable. … We hated to do it.”

“We still have long-term plans,” he continued. “We felt that by cutting back, we can focus on things such as fume hoods, which is the best avenue to protect those workers. I know it’s a hard thing to hear from a business.”

Crews did not return a call for comment.

The company has since rescinding its February notice filed to the state. No layoffs have taken place to date.

Jamestown Metal was founded in 1943.

See Friday’s edition of The Post-Journal for complete coverage.