Amid job-cutting, Dell's profit falls

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Dell to pay back Triad incentives

Dell has agreed to repay more than $26 million in incentives from Winston-Salem and Forsyth County as it prepares to close its PC plant.

Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines sent a letter this week confirming that Dell will pay back $15.5 million to the city within 30 days, The Associated Press reported. Dell will repay $11 million in grants and county costs.

Dell announced this month that it plans to close the plant, which opened in 2004, by the end of January. About 600 workers will be let go next month and 300 more early next year.

Dell closing Winston-Salem plant

Dell plans to close its computer manufacturing plant in Winston-Salem by January, and lay off 905 employees.

Dell opened the assembly plant in 2005 and was offered a massive incentives package valued at $305 million if it met hiring and investment goals. The project was seen as a major economic development victory by supporters and a huge waste of taxpayer money by critics.

About 600 workers at the plant will be let go next month, Dell announced this afternoon. The rest will be out of work by early next year.

Opaque incentives

The following editorial appeared last week in the Greensboro News and Record:

Give Dell Inc. a little credit. The computer maker's promises of major investment and job creation never really came to pass, and the company will close its doors next month after only four years in operation. [Dell has since announced that it will keep the plant in partial operation through April.]

The plant closing clearly demonstrates Dell's keen eye on the bottom line. The company's stock price has dropped by more than half since the plant opened. Dell is losing market share. Its most recent earnings report was grim.

Dell won't close plant till May

Dell plans to keep its Winston-Salem plant open through April, about three months longer than expected, to handle rebounding sales of desktop computers.

The company announced in October that it would close the factory next month and lay off about 900 employees. About half of those workers were let go in November.

But Dell is "continuing to see signs of demand improvement" and needs the factory to stay open until the end of April to supplement manufacturing being done at other facilities, spokesman Venancio Figueroa said Friday.

Winston-Salem leaders cry foul over Dell layoffs; plant heavily subsidized by taxpayers

Stung by another round of layoffs at the heavily subsidized Dell plant, Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines today called for Dell to provide detailed information about employment at its computer assembly plant in Forsyth County.

Dell laid off more workers at the plant on Thursday, but would not confirm a number. The city's financial incentives to Dell are predicated on the plant employing a least 1,700 people at an average yearly pay of $28,000 by October 2010. The company has confirmed layoffs at the plant but has not provided current employment figures.

"I, and the City Council, are increasingly concerned by the company's withholding of employment information related to incentive requirements," Joines said. "The people of Winston-Salem have invested in this company and deserve more forthcoming communication."