On April 21, The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi) confirmed Peavey Electronics is not closing additional plants in Mississippi, despite reports suggesting that the company was moving manufacturing operations overseas:
The Associated Press in New York reported Tuesday morning that the Meridian-based guitar amplifier and musical equipment maker was closing its remaining two manufacturing plants and shifting those jobs overseas.
The report apparently originated from a press release from PPL Group and Myron Bowling Auctioneers announcing the auction of Peavey equipment.
“After more than 50 years operating as one of the largest audio equipment manufacturers in the world, Peavey Electronics is closing its speaker and amplifier manufacturing operations in Decatur and Meridian, Mississippi and will be auctioning off the equipment on May 19 and 20. The company is relocating some manufacturing operations that were traditionally done in Mississippi to outsourced operations in response to lower cost manufacturing overseas,” the press release read.
Sources with knowledge of Peavey’s operation say the press release was erroneous and that the auctioning of items is only an extension of previously announced changes in Mississippi facilities.
When reached for comment on April 28th, Peavey Electronics founder and CEO Hartley Peavey said, “The simple truth is we closed a facility – eight years ago. We hired PPL Group and Myron Bowling Auctioneers to sell some of the equipment from that factory and some other equipment. They then sent out a bulletin about this auction that they’re going to have and somehow this story came out that we were closing all our factories. That’s absolutely not true. This AP thing went out everywhere and we didn’t know anything about it until the largest newspaper in Mississippi published the story and then all these people started calling wondering, ‘Is it true you’re closing all your facilities?’ And we absolutely are not. It’s all much ado about nothing.”
