Commercial Resins Co. to leave county

A pipe coating company in Cheyenne County that employs 25 workers will be closing or changing hands.

Commercial Resins Co. operates a facility north of Brownson, near the Cabela's Distribution Center. General manager Chad McLaughlin said the company hasn't yet prepared an official statement and the ultimate fate of the facility remains uncertain.

"The thing that is going to happen is Commercial Resins is going to close on this site," he said. "So there'll either be a transfer of ownership or we'll shut eventually. We're not sure what our date is yet. It probably won't be that long before we quit coating pipe."

The company, which began operations in Cheyenne County in 2004, is an oil and gas pipeline coating facility, McLaughlin said.

The Sidney facility includes a 55,000 square-foot building on a parcel of 50 acres, according to the company's website. The plant specializes in applying coatings to prevent corrosion in pipes 2- to 24-inches in diameter used in oil and gas pipelines projects.

As the company plans its exit from Cheyenne County, McLaughlin said it will continue to serve customers.

"We have a little work we need to complete," he explained. "I sure don't want people that we're working for to panic or our suppliers to get the wrong idea."

The decision comes as the price of oil continues to plummet – limiting development and expansion industrywide.

"We weren't really busy to start with," McLaughlin said. "That's why things have come to this."

The oil and gas industry as a whole has been suffering, he said.

"There's been a lot of jobs lost, especially inside the oil industry as the price of oil has gone down drastically in the last couple of years," McLaughlin said.

Another Commercial Resins facility near Denver will likely be unaffected by the changes in Cheyenne County, he added.

"They're hoping to maintain that [location]," McLaughlin said. "That's a completely different operation than this one. They coat rebar and small diameter pipe."

The company's departure from Cheyenne County comes just two months after CommScope announced it will be closing its Sidney facility and eliminating 140 jobs.

Uncertainty also continues to surround the future of Cabela's, Sidney's largest employer, after an activist investor called for changes to increase shareholder value.

Sidney Mayor Mark Nienhueser said while he hasn't spoke to representatives from Commercial Resins yet, the news that another business may be leaving town is concerning.

The city and its economic development advisory committee are ardently working to recruit other employers and companies to come to Sidney, he said.

"It's their No. 1 priority," the mayor remarked.

As well, the city council is working as quickly as it can to fill the vacant city manager position, Nienhueser added. Once hired, the city manager will help lead those economic development efforts, he said.