J&E Cos. shuts three Twin Cities factories, laying off 145

Citing financial woes, Plymouth-based J&E Cos. is closing its Minnesota plants and laying off 145 workers, according to documents filed with the state.

The three custom-metal manufacturing shops were in Lakeville, Plymouth and Shakopee.

Company officials could not be reached for comment. But in notices required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) filed this month, they said workers were being laid off immediately.

It is not clear if the company’s Wisconsin operations will continue to function.

The J&E shutdown is ending a 65-year history in Minnesota.

“This notice was issued as soon as it became clear that, despite efforts by J&E, it would not be able to continue its operations due to financial difficulties and circumstances,“ the notice said. ”Such efforts had the potential of permitting operations to continue, including through a potential sale of the business which could have resulted in the continued employment of J&E’s employees. However, those efforts failed shortly before the issuance of this notice.”

The shutdowns are a significant contraction following the much-celebrated 2022 merger with R&B, a 100-year-old Wisconsin-based precision machining firm with more than 100 employees.

Together, J&E and R&B had 325 employees operating six facilities throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin and Mexico. After the merger, the company had 450,000 square feet of production space.

The Plymouth headquarters and factory is losing 70 skilled machinists and welders, engineers, laser machine operators and more. The Lakeville facility is losing 45. Shakopee will lose 30.

A few employees, the notice said, were employed beyond June 2 to finalize operations.

Plymouth City Manager Dave Callister said the loss of 70 manufacturing jobs in his city were unfortunate. But he expected affected workers to “hopefully” land other jobs soon.

The northwest suburbs have a large number of manufacturing employers, especially medtech firms.

J&E workers have skill-sets that are generally in high demand, Callister said.

J&E’s layoffs hit as Minnesota’s unemployment rate rose slightly in April to 3.2%. The state lost 1,300 jobs that month, mostly in education, business, financial services and government.

Manufacturing jobs rose slightly. The sector is seen as critical to Minnesota’s economy as factory jobs are often technical in nature and tend to pay well.

Separately, the state has since been bracing for the effect of federal layoffs within Minnesota as the Trump administration continues efforts to downsize departments and agencies. Officials also are watching for any effects of Trump’s tariff policies.

J&E’s layoffs follow other recent downsizings announcements in Minnesota, include: 189 workers at Smurfit WestRock paper plant in St. Paul; 117 workers at CommonBond Communities in St. Paul; 80 machinists at TransAxle, LLC in St. Paul; and 95 workers Apple Valley Foods in Chaska.

Separately, it is unclear what to expect at Boston Scientific. Two weeks ago, it announced it will eliminate jobs after discontinuing global sales of its Acurate aortic valve replacement systems. This week, it announced it is consolidating its Minnetonka workforce into its Maple Grove campus.

Boston Science officials declined to give details on how employment might be affected.