Spudnik Manufacturing Company representatives say reports being carried by eastern Idaho newspapers about layoffs are being taken out of context.
Kent Banner, company manager of the Blackfoot, ID, potato equipment manufacturer, said it is business as usual at the company's plants. He said the fact the company had to lay off 21 workers because of a United States industry slow down does not mean the company is not continuing its expansion plans.
Banner said the company has been hiring dozens of new workers over the past four years since it expanded operations and will not be slowing its manufacturing operations.
"We are redesigning our semi-trailer and new harvester, building a planter, with six scheduled to be produced as proto-types for next spring, and doing many other things in the company to make us better.
"We are simply adjusting to a slowdown in the potato market caused by overproduction and the resulting low prices. But we fully expect the market to improve and we are moving ahead, Banner said."
Spudnik nearly doubled the size of its worldwide operations in 1995 and had not laid off any workers until December.