A. O. Smith Corporation announced today (April 3) that it will discontinue manufacturing operations at its 500,000 square foot Fergus, ON, residential water heater facility. The company plans to consolidate residential and light commercial water heater manufacturing into other North American plants. The relocation of the manufacturing operations will begin over the next several weeks, and the company expects to end the majority of production July 1. The transfer will affect approximately 350 employees in manufacturing and directly related support functions. Fergus will remain the central office of A. O. Smith’s Canadian business with a total of approximately 125 employees. The facility will house the sales, marketing, finance, customer service, information technology and product engineering functions. The company’s regional water heater distribution center also will remain in Fergus. The A. O. Smith plant in Stratford, ON, that manufactures pump tanks for water systems is not affected by this action. “Today’s action is the result of a comprehensive study evaluating the competitiveness of our North American operations,” Kevin J. Wheeler, president and general manager of North American water heating, said. “The water heater industry is extremely competitive and has been burdened with overcapacity for a number of years,” Wheeler noted. “In addition, we have been facing a challenging economic environment as a Canadian manufacturer.” A. O. Smith will continue to market water heaters under the A. O. Smith, GSW, and John Woodbrands in Canada. www.aosmith.com/News/Detail.aspx?id=975