Connecticut manufacturer to close, 68 workers layoffs expected

The exterior of Cooper-Atkins in Middlefield. The manufacturing company, which is located on Reeds Gap Road, will be closing next March.

Temperature management equipment maker Cooper-Atkins in Middlefield will close next spring and 68 workers will be laid off as part of a cost reduction effort by the company's St. Louis-based corporate parent.

Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions informed officials with the Connecticut Department of Labor of the manufacturing plant closing last week. The layoffs will be done in three separate waves starting in February and continuing through the end of March, with the facility at 33 Reeds Gap Road closing on March 31.

Work done at the Middlefield factory will be transferred to other Emerson facilities around the country, according to company officials.

In a letter to Connecticut Labor Department officials announcing the closing, Emerson's Human Resources Manager Sarah Minzes said the employees being laid off would receive severance packages based on how long they worked for the company. At the time Emerson purchased Cooper-Atkins, the Connecticut company had 150 employees.

Emerson has spent much of 2022 divesting itself of several business units.

Earlier this month, the company completed the sale of its InSinkErator business unit to Whirlpool Corp. InSinkErator is the world's largest manufacturer of food waste disposers and instant hot water dispensers for home and commercial use,

Emerson purchased Cooper-Atkins in early 2018. Before that, the company was owned for nearly 60 years by members of the Wallace family.

Floyd Wallace bought the company in 1960 when it was known as Cooper Instrument Co. Wallace's daughter Carol took over running the company from her father in 1994.

Cooper-Atkins traces its roots back to 1885. That's when David G. Cooper, who invented the first bimetal oven thermometer, founded what was then known as the Cooper Oven Thermometer Co.

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