115 lose jobs in Pristina closure

A Spokane Valley manufacturer has shut its doors for good and laid off its 115 workers, the second round of big layoffs announced locally in two days.

Pristina Pine, which cut wood into finished lumber and sold it to window frame companies, shut down Feb. 6, said company Chief Operating Officer Eugene Winter.

“It’s due to not just one thing,” he said. “In January we saw the numbers just drop (for orders), and we had to react,” he said.

On Wednesday, Empire Health Services announced it is laying off about 130 employees at Deaconess Medical Center and Valley Hospital & Medical Center.

Pristina Pine has operated from a production plant and offices at 3014 N. Flora St. since 2002.

One of the company’s major customers, Andersen Corp. of Bayport, Minn., halted orders late in 2007.

Winter said that was just one sign of a slowing housing market and a national economy facing declines in new-home construction and remodeling. Analysts said housing starts for single-family residential units were down about 30 percent in 2007 compared with the previous year.

Ducker Worldwide, a construction consulting firm, said that drop translated to a 16 percent decline in orders for windows and doors. A Ducker analyst said it expects a 12 percent drop in those orders in 2008, according to industry trade reports.

Winter said privately held Pristina’s owner is J.D. Wells, who lives out of state.

All operations should be shut down by the end of the month, said Pristina office manager Brenda Sacco. She said a skeleton crew of fewer than 10 workers will work through Feb. 23.

Winter said the company has no plans to dispose of the building and production equipment, which Pristina owns. It doesn’t plan to file for bankruptcy, Winter added.

“We’ve been profitable,” he added, but sales prospects have dried up in the past two months with no sign of improvement.