KREAMER, Pa. -- Wood-Mode is officially back in business. The custom cabinetry plant in Kreamer closed suddenly about four months ago and was recently sold to a businessman from Middleburg.
Wood-Mode restarted production Tuesday morning at its facility in Snyder County.
Wood-Mode is operating on a much smaller scale than when the plant closed in May.
Currently, there are around 70 people working there, but the new owner tells Newswatch 16 he is hiring more employees every week.
"It's exciting," said Wood-Mode owner Bill French. "I hope that it will turn out to be a good investment and a good investment in the community."
French bought Wood-Mode last month and has been slowly hiring employees. Right now, there are around 70, and 35 of them started on Tuesday.
"Every week, we've been bringing on a few more people. There's a lot of reorganizing to do in order to get the company up and started," French said.
Wood-Mode closed in May without warning, leaving nearly 1,000 people without jobs. That includes Greg Leister, who worked at Wood-Mode for more than 30 years.
"Good, I was glad. I kept hearing they were opening, and I was hoping to get back," said Leister.
When Wood-Mode closed suddenly in May, there were thousands of unfinished orders. Now the task is going through all of those orders.
"Organizing that so as we continue to add employees, it's organized that they know exactly what they have to process to fulfill an existing order," said manager Bob Gessner.
"It's exciting but it's overwhelming at the same time to get everything reorganized," said Mike Lauver, who worked at Wood-Mode for 16 years. "It's good to be back, definitely."
French says he will gradually add more employees and hopes to be at around 200 to 500 workers by next year this time. If you would like to apply at Wood-Mode, you are asked to stop by the plant in person.