American LaFrance will discontinue operations at its Casper, Wyo., plant by late 2006. The majority of the existing backlog of vehicles will be completed at this plant during a transition period. Some of the existing orders as well as future orders will be manufactured at other company plants.

During a meeting with the plant employees, the company's transition plans were discussed. At the conclusion of that meeting, the employees as a group re-affirmed their commitment to complete existing orders in an efficient and quality manner.

According to Scott Barnes, vice president of sales and marketing, this transition of production to other facilities is part of an effort to build greater efficiencies and will be seamless to American LaFrance operations and transparent to its customers. About 67 positions in Casper will be affected by the production transfer.

"We are committed to providing our dealers and customers with the widest selection of custom fire apparatus to meet their needs, including the extruded fire apparatus product line," said Barnes.

American LaFrance has manufacturing operations in Ladson and Jedburg, S.C.; Ephrata, Pa.; Hamburg, N.Y.; and Sanford, Fla. The company is working to make substantial enhancements and capital investments at its other plants, and it will relocate corporate headquarters to a new facility in the Ladson area.