FLORSHEIM PLANTS CAUGHT IN RESTRUCTURING

The Florsheim Shoe Inc. facility located at the intersection of West End Boulevard and Highway 74 will expand its work force at a result of corporate restructuring.

"The Boulevard plant will take on 50 to 60 new workers," said Jim Orso of Fleishman-Hilliard, a public relations agency in St. Louis. "Some of the work being done at the Anna, Ill., plant will be moved to company's Boulevard plant."

Orso, who is a spokesman for Florsheim, said a number of the new workers at the Cape Girardeau facility will be hired from the Anna plant.

Florsheim announced this month that the Anna factory, which has been in operating since 1966, will close in early 1993.

"A Florsheim facility on Nash Road will also close," said Orso. "The Nash Road operation is a smaller one, and most of the assembly line work there will be transferred to a plant in Jefferson City."

Asked if Cape Girardeau workers at the Nash Road plant would be offered transfers to Jefferson, Orso said he did not know.

"I know that the Jefferson City plant will take on 80 to 100 workers," said Orso. "I don't know where those workers will come from."

Florsheim's parent company, St. Louis-based Interco, filed for bankruptcy protection more than a year ago. Florsheim officials say the latest closures are part of a restructuring plan.

The closure of the Anna factory will result in the loss of more than 300 jobs.

Mayor Ken Kohler said notice indicated the layoffs would start Jan. 11, with the final layoffs to be completed about the end of February.