ORANGE — Rexnord Corp. has sold the Rodney Hunt Fontaine Inc. factory in Orange to the American arm of a company based in India, the purchasing company’s president said Tuesday afternoon.

Ranjit Nair of JASH USA Inc. said he could not disclose how much the company sold for, but said he hopes this move will re-energize the community, which took an economic hit when Rodney Hunt ceased operations at the end of 2016. Nair said he looks forward to the “next chapter of a very storied company.”

JASH USA has its headquarters in Houston, Texas. Its parent company, JASH Engineering Limited, is in Indore, India.

Nair referred all other questions at this time to Paul Brunelle, who started working for Rodney Hunt in 1969 and has continued to work in Orange since the plant was closed. JASH USA Inc. bought the company and its intellectual property, including the brand name, on Sept. 21, 2016. Rexnord closed the plant last year and moved its 200 jobs to Pittsburgh.

Brunelle said the Rodney Hunt plant will keep its name but will be “a very small footprint” of the company it once was, having employed roughly 400 people at its peak in the 1970s. He said the property will be used to make moveable screens (which Rodney Hunt has never before manufactured) and smaller, fabricated gates, as well as to store inventory.

Brunelle said JASH USA owns most of the large machinery used for milling and drilling, but will not use much of it. Most the company’s manufacturing takes place on four sites in India.

The 68-year-old Brunelle, who lives in Amherst, said though the plant will be only a shell of its former self, he is optimistic about what this impending sale means.

“It’s a new opportunity going forward,” he said.

Brunelle said he is one of five former employees now working on the 37.87-acre, 234,000-square-foot property in Orange. He said he now works part-time. He explained he started working in the foundry in 1969 and moved to sales in 1973, after graduating from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Kevin Kennedy, the director of community development and planning for Orange, said the company will likely never return to the scale it previously reached, but it may possibly lease some of the buildings on the property.

Assistance

The U.S. Department of Labor on Nov. 4, 2016, found employees of the Rodney Hunt Fontaine Inc. factory had been hurt by foreign competition, and those made partially or entirely unemployed on or after Feb. 24, 2015, and before Nov. 4, 2018, are entitled to assistance to get back on their feet.

Available benefits include weekly cash benefits, financial assistance for remedial or vocational training programs, travel allowances to and from training, and job search expenses and relocation allowances. For more information about the benefits, all workers should apply at the Franklin Hampshire Career Center at 1 Arch Place in Greenfield, or their nearest One-Stop Career Center.

The deadline to apply for benefits is Nov. 4, 2018.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 258. On Twitter: @DomenicPoli

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