By MIKE HELM

Columbus County got a hard blow to start the New Year Friday when Conflandey employees were told the wire manufacturer would shut down its Whiteville operations at Southeast Regional (Industrial) Park and leave 58 workers unemployed.

Conflandey’s major multinational competitor, the Belgian company Bekaert, issued a press release Friday saying it had bought the machinery and equipment from the Whiteville plant for $4.5 million. Bekaert did not purchase the building, which is owned by Conflandey.

Bekaert announced it would move the equipment to its wire plant in Shelbyville, Ky, during the first quarter. Employees were told the plant would shut down in six weeks.

Conflandey officials would not comment.

“I certainly am saddened to hear that news,” said County Commission Chairman Kip Godwin. “Any time we lose a major industry like that it creates a hardship on families.”

Harry Foley, an economic development consultant who has done some work for Conflandey, said some current employees would be given the opportunity to relocate to Shelbyville.

Brandon Ward, an Old Dock resident and Conflandey employee, said Conflandey managers told employees Friday they could apply for jobs at other plants.

Conflandey, which operates one other plant in the United States, is the single most important supplier of stitching wire and binderies to North American printers, according to the Bekaert release.

Bekaert, which employees 16,400 people internationally, operates seven plants for wire products and five for advanced materials and coatings in the United States. Its U.S. operations are headquartered in Akron, Ohio.

Friday’s announcement is a major blow to Southeast Regional Park. Conflandey made a $15 million investment in the park in 1997 and began operations approximately five years ago. At its height, the French-based company employed 68 people.

Foley said Conflandey is having financial problems and Bekaert wanted the equipment, which is relatively new.

“The sad thing is, there are probably a core number of employees who have been with the company since the beginning,” Foley said. “I think Conflandey was a good corporate client as long as they were here.”

Confandey has a history of environmental problems. The company’s excessive discharges of zinc into Whiteville’s sewage treatment system put Whiteville in trouble with state environmental regulators on several occasions. Conflandey also had to make changes when state air quality inspectors found problems with the ventilation of a wire coating system.

The company fine-tuned its pre-treatment system for waste and eventually paid fines incurred by the City of Whiteville. In October 2005, however, Conflandey workers were performing routine maintenance on the pre-treatment system and inadvertently allowed zinc-laden sludge waste to enter the Whiteville sewer, said City Engineer Rob Armstrong.

“We got nearly all of it at the lift station but they failed to follow the procedure and call us to tell us about it,” Armstrong said. “We just happened to catch it.”

After confirming the contamination with several tests, Whiteville fined Conflandey $3,000 on Dec. 1, 2005. The fine has not been paid, Armstrong said.

The departure of Conflandey leaves the park with two empty buildings and just three corporate clients. One of those clients, Sumitomo Electric Light Wave, has dramatically scaled back operations and its building is on the market.

InterKordSA is the last manufacturing company in the park, which also houses Progress Energy offices and a Coca-Cola warehouse.

A source familiar with the park said that local officials are trying to help InterKordSA, a belting and fiber maker that is struggling. InterKordSA’s future here is uncertain, the source said.

Coca-Cola has anchored the park since its inception.

News Editor Lee Hinnant contributed to this story.