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The company's president and chief financial officer, Pete Martz, sent employees in Lapeer, Sebewaing and Dearborn notices Tuesday informing them the company plans to cease operations in the three communities between Nov. 1 and Dec. 1.

In a letter to salaried employees, Martz blamed the plant closings on "sudden, dramatic and unexpected deteriorating circumstances in the automotive industry" and the company's "financial and economic condition."

Calls to the company's offices in Lapeer as well its parent company, The Diez Group, in Fraser were not returned as of presstime Friday.

Lapeer Mayor Bill Sprague said he and city manager Dale Kerbyson plan to meet with company officials to see what can be done.

"We're kind of operating in the dark," he said, noting the city has not received an official notice of the plant closing from LMS officials.

Chong-Anna Canfora, director of state Department of Labor and Economic Growth's Rapid Response Unit, said her office will be meeting with company officials, union representatives, Michigan WORKS representatives, HRDI (a state contractor) and unemployment officials in the next few days to discuss what happens next. Canfora said that group will put together a plan to provide employees with unemployment benefits and job retraining and help them find work.

In his letter to employees, Martz said LMS has "been compelled to sell its book of business." Sprague, who before his retirement from Delphi Corp. was involved in plant closures, said that typically means the company has sold off its tooling and contracts to supply parts.

Two years ago, Gerald F. Diez, founder of The Diez Group, was honored as Chrysler's Minority Business Entreprenuer of the Year Award, National Minority Supplier of the Year and JCI's Minority Business Entreprenuer of the Year Award.

Diez was inducted into the Minority Business Hall of Fame and Museum during ceremonies in January in New York City. According materials provided during the induction, Diez founded the Delaco Steel Corporation in 1973, the same year LMS went on the tax rolls in Lapeer.

Diez purchased controlling interest in LMS, which specializes in the manufacturing of metal stampings and assemblies for the automotive industry, in 1988.

The Diez Group is widely reported as one of the largest minority-owned firms involved in the steel industry.

Lapeer Metal Stamping's Plant No. 2, which reportedly employs 33 people, has been on the state Department of Labor and Economic Growth's WARN List for plant closing since last November. The company's Plant No. 1, which reportedly employs 50 people, was slated for a mass layoff, according to the Department's WARN List. Both plants are located along Saginaw Street in the city of Lapeer and Lapeer Township.

The state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers to provide workers and the state's dislocated worker unit 60-days notice of covered business closings and covered mass layoffs. The WARN act covers for-profit and non-profit businesses that employ more than 100 people.

According to its Web site, Lapeer Metal Stamping employs more than 500 people at plants in Dearborn, Lapeer, and Mt. Clemens. The most current products listed on the company's Web site are seven stamped components for the Chrysler Stratus/Cirrus and 11 stamped components for the Ford Excursion. However production of the Stratus/Cirrus ceased in 2006 and Ford dropped the Excursion from its line up the year before.

"It hurts," said Lapeer Township Supervisor Scott Jarvis, "Not so much for the township, but a lot of people are going to lose their jobs. It's no good for them."

Jarvis said the township had given the company a 12-year Industrial Facility Tax Incentive on its Clark Road plant, but that expired in 2005.

At one time Lapeer Metal Stamping's two Lapeer County plants reportedly employed as many as 250 people. In October 2006 the company announced it was laying off 87 employees.

"They've been through a lot of changes," said city property assessor Tom Hubbell, noting the last few years have been rough on auto suppliers in the region.

CEP, a supplier of engineered plastics, closed its doors in 2005, but the plant was reopened a year later when it was purchased by Lapeer Industries.

The locally-based defense contractor currently occupies three other former auto parts plants including Johnson Controls, Detail Boring and Lapeer Properties, which the company moved into in February.

"We've been lucky," said Hubbell, noting that Lapeer Industries' expansion has left the city with virtually no vacant industrial buildings despite the loss of auto parts suppliers in recent years.

Phil Foley may be reached at (810) 664-0811, Ext. 8148 or pfoley@lapeergroup.com.