Spokane Valley employer to close, laying off 107 workers

The west coast office of Plug Power Inc., a firm that manufactures, stores and delivers hydrogen fuel, will permanently close June 30, effectively laying off over one hundred local workers.

The U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration requires companies with more than 100 workers to announce layoffs and closures.

The west coast office of Plug Power is at 15913 E. Euclid Ave., a roughly 24,000-square-foot facility in the Spokane Business and Industrial Park.

The firm could not be immediately reach by phone or email Thursday afternoon.

In 2014, Plug Power, based in Latham, New York, purchased the tenant of the building, ReliOn Inc., according to previous reporting by The Spokesman-Review.

The company paid $4 million to purchase the assets of ReliOn, which manufactured hydrogen fuel cells at the time.

The ReliOn workforce then shrank from 45 workers to 25. The company’s president, Gary Flood, said it needed to merge with Power Plug Inc. because it was not profitable, the fate experienced by many similar companies, he said, according to Spokesman-Review reports.

Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh told investors in 2014 that he expected the company to be profitable during that year, following a streak of quarterly losses stretching back to the company’s founding in 1997, according to Spokesman reports.

Last month, the company reported its financial results for 2023.

“There is no longer substantial doubt of the Company’s ability to continue,” a company release said.

It achieved revenue of $891 million for 2023, which is a company record and reflects a 27% growth over the prior year.

Last year, it opened a hydrogen plant in Woodbine, Georgia, which is the largest of its kind in the nation. It is the company’s first large-scale facility and greatly increased its production capabilities, the release said.

The company’s key customers are Tyson, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Home Depot and Amazon, according to its website.