ANNA OFFICIALS HOPE TO FILL SHOE PLANT; INTERCO RESTRUCTURING INCLUDES CLOSING OF NASH ROAD FACILITY

ANNA, Ill. -- Wanted: "Shoe manufacturing company, hat producing company, apparel company, or any other manufacturer that can utilize a large structure previously used as a shoe factory."

Ken Kohler is looking for a business that wants to move to Southern Illinois.

Kohler, the mayor of Anna, and a group of Anna and Illinois state officials have drawn up a list of businesses that might be interested in taking over a Florsheim Shoe Co. plant that will be closing here in the near future.

Florsheim Shoes Inc. plans to close its Anna plant by next spring, Kohler said.

Owners of the shoe company plant announced Thursday they would close the factory, which has been in Anna since 1966.

The latest announcement of Interco's restructuring plan also affects shoe workers in Cape Girardeau. An Interco spokesman told The Associated Press that the company also planned to close a small Florsheim facility on Nash Road in Cape Girardeau.

The announcement Friday was sort of a bad news-good news mixture for Cape Girardeau.

The Interco spokesman told AP that a second Florsheim plant in Cape Girardeau would expand its workforce.

"The Cape Girardeau plant located at the intersection of West End Boulevard and Highway 74 will take on another 50 to 60 workers," said the spokesman.

"The Nash Road operations is a smaller one," said the spokesman. "Part of the assembly line work there will be absorbed at the West End Boulevard plant and part of it will be taken to a plant in Jefferson City.

The Florsheim operation in Jefferson City will also take on 80 to 100 new workers, said the spokesman.

Florsheim's parent company, St. Louis-based Interco, filed for bankruptcy protection more than a year ago. Kohler said Interco officials told him the closures were part of a restructuring plan.

"It's almost devastating to potentially lose a $1 million payroll and factory," said Kohler.