Toyota Supplier Offers Buyouts, and Community Worries

No one knows when the Toyota plant at Blue Springs will again resume construction.

A Toyota supplier is laying off workers but not closing its doors. MPB’s Cari Gervin reports on how North Mississippi is handling the latest bad news about the delayed Blue Springs plant.

Late Friday afternoon, Auto Parts Manufacturing Mississippi offered buyouts to 13 of its 16 employees in Baldwyn.

Dennis Cuneo is a senior advisor for Toyota Auto Body, which owns APMM. He says that with construction halted at the Blue Springs plant, there was nothing for the workers to do.

“There’s been a lot of rumors, you know about what’s going to be built or not built. This has nothing to do with those rumors. You have to understand that in the auto market we’re in the biggest downturn since probably the Great Depression. We have two automakers in bankruptcy. We have a number of suppliers either in or going into bankruptcy. And these are just extraordinary times.”

Cuneo reiterated that Toyota is committed to eventually opening the Blue Springs plant and building the Prius hybrid vehicle there, despite recent rumors.

But for area residents, this latest setback is a hard pill to swallow.

“It’s gonna be a big blow to the state.”

That’s Vicki Gentry, who runs Gentry’s Grocery and Grill with her husband. It’s about the only retail business in Blue Springs, and she says no one cares about the Prius rumors.

“But we wouldn’t care what they build, I mean, you know, we just hope they open the plant. We really do. We hope that it does open, maybe in three or four years, maybe. There’re so many furniture factories here that are closing up, and, you know, we really needed the jobs.”

APPM says it will make its planned annual payments to local governments. For MPB News, I’m Cari Gervin.