Sony USA has announced that it will be closing its CD plant in Pitman, New Jersey in March.
Pitman is one of four Sony manufacturing plants in the United States. The company also has two CD plants in Mexico.
The Pitman plant started manufacturing CDs in 1988. CBS Records, who were bought out by Sony one year later, originally owned the plant.
Pitman is capable of producing 600,000 CDs a day but with the downturn in physical sales, it now rarely reaches capacity. The official reason was put down to "current economic environment and challenges facing the physical-media industry."
At its peak, the plant employed more than 2000 staff. Today it employs 350 people. All but 50 will lose their job. Only IT, finance and customer service staff will stay in a new rented office. The plant will be offered for sale.
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