Local fence brand is shutting Northeast Philly factory 9 years after being acquired by a larger company
Jerith Manufacturing, which makes aluminum fences in Philadelphia, has been operating for 65 years.
Faced with a huge rent increase, Northeast Philadelphia aluminum fence maker Jerith Manufacturing is closing its factory by next spring.
Continuing to operate out of the 14400 McNulty Rd. facility would be “economically impractical” in light of the rising cost of rent, general manager K. Robert Lomber said in a layoff notice filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.
Rent on the 445,000-square-foot facility is expected to nearly triple starting May 1, Lomber said.
In the layoff notice, Lomber said Jerith is “going out of business as a separate operating entity.” But the president of Jerith’s parent company, Ameristar Perimeter Security, said last month that Jerith would be adopting a new operating model “to better serve customers and support the long-term success of the Jerith brand.”
The closure of the Philadelphia site affects 61 workers, 24 of whom will be offered new positions at a New Jersey facility owned by Jerith’s parent company, according to the notice. Layoffs will occur in phases beginning Nov. 15.
Thirty-eight of Jerith’s 61 Philly workers are represented by Teamsters Local 830.
Jerith spends about $4.4 million on employee payroll annually, and Philadelphia is expected to miss out on $140,000 annual tax revenue when it is closed, the layoff notice indicates.
Going forward, some of the manufacturing, assembly, and transportation work Jerith has been doing in Philadelphia will be carried out by Ameristar, which also makes fences, gates, and other barriers, in New Jersey and Tulsa.
Jerith, which dates back to 1961, uses U.S. aluminum in its products — one of the materials currently caught in the tariff dispute between the United States and Canada, under the Trump administration.
Jerith was acquired in 2017 by Assa Abloy, which has 64,000 employees in over 70 countries and over 250 brands, including manufacturers of locks and doors, such as Ameristar Perimeter Security.
