AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT PROPER GROUP

Warren, Michigan-based Proper Group, a supplier of engineering, tooling, and manufacturing for the plastics industry for the automotive, lighting, and industrial markets, has announced the closure of its Warren, Michigan, tool and manufacturing facility.

The shutdown will impact 130 employees, and the shutdown will be completed by March 31, 2023.

President Robert Hamood cited “financial difficulties that were not reasonably foreseeable” as the reason for the closure.

Hamood said the tooling company’s collapse was the result of last-minute changes to a deal between Florida-based private equity firm New Water Capital and Proper Group, which also has plants in Tennessee, South Carolina and Ontario. The firm initially agreed to buy more of the business than it ultimately ended up taking.

“They, at the end of the agreement, sort of reneged and wanted to purchase only one small part of the offer they had made, so that left us in a position to scramble to sell other pieces of the company and really a situation where we’re left with too much debt on the remaining company,” Hamood said.

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?