IROQUOIS – Ross Video is going through a restructuring with reports of layoffs at the company’s head office in Iroquois and other locations around the world.
An employee at the manufacturing plant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said the Iroquois plant manager had called a staff meeting Monday at 1 p.m.
The cuts were not confined to the Iroquois location, the source said.
The layoffs came “from out of nowhere” for a company that is known as community and family oriented, the source added.
“At this point, we’re not commenting at all, I’m sorry,” said Jenn Markey, vice president of marketing for Ross Video.
Markey would neither confirm nor deny that the layoffs had taken place.
Ross Video recently bought a neighbouring property in Iroquois at a municipal auction for a planned 40,000 square foot expansion.
Asked if the expansion was still going ahead, Markey said “to the best of our knowledge, yes.”
Later in the day, Markey released a statement to Cornwall Newswatch:
Today Ross Video began a process of what will amount to a net overall change of about 2% to their global workforce. Ross is redefining some positions, and making room for additional new hires to take advantage of new opportunities in the marketplace. Ross has a track record of 25 years of record growth and 2017 is expected to be a growth year as well.
A call by Cornwall Newswatch to Sara Bell, media relations specialist for Ross Video, went to voicemail at the Iroquois office Monday morning. A call to her cell phone was also unanswered.
By Monday afternoon, Bell’s voice mailbox was no longer operating and a call to her extension was redirected to the switchboard at the Ottawa R&D location.
Bell, posting on her personal Twitter account at 3:43 p.m., talked about being in shock and that she would be looking forward to new adventures.
In addition to the head office in Iroquois, there’s an R&D facility in Ottawa and offices in New York State, Australia, The Netherlands, Belgium and Singapore, according to the company’s website.
Ross Video develops video production equipment, such as switchers and camera robotics, for television news and live event production industry.
It’s not known exactly how many positions are affected in Iroquois.