2 businesses to close northern Illinois plants, almost 250 jobs impacted – KWQC
PRINCETON/SAVANNA, Ill. (KWQC) – Two businesses are closing plants in Northern Illinois, impacting almost 250 jobs, according to the Illinois database of layoffs.
Elkay Plumbing will close its Savanna plant and said it will transfer 178 jobs to other northwestern Illinois facilities, and the closure of Ingersoll Rand in Princeton will cost 70 jobs.
All 178 Elkay workers were offered the opportunity to transfer to its Lanark and Freeport facilities by December, according to a company spokesperson.
Lanark is about 18 miles from Savanna, and Freeport is about 40 miles.
Elkay Plumbing first notified WARN about the closure in April. They recently revised the number of impacted employees on Friday.
The company started transferring workers in April, according to the state database, the next transfers will be on Oct. 17 and 24.
The city in Carroll County has a population of about 2,700.
“The need for costly roof repairs and space limitations led to the decision to transfer all current positions in Savanna, Illinois, to our existing facilities in Lanark, Illinois, and Freeport, Illinois.
“A WARN notice was triggered because there is a permanent or temporary shutdown of a single site of employment for 75 or more employees. However, everyone was offered the opportunity to transfer, and these transfers have been happening in several phases and will continue through the end of December.
“Zurn Elkay is committed to northwestern Illinois. In our expanding operations in Lanark and Freeport, we produce the drinking fountains and bottle filling stations that, in just the first half of 2025, have delivered over 1.2 billion gallons of filtered drinking water and prevented 9.6 billion single-use plastic bottles from being sent to landfills.”
Ingersoll Rand officials announced the company will close it’s Princeton facility Tuesday.
According to the Illinois layoff database, 70 jobs are being cut.
The company plans to stop operations in Princeton by March 2026, according to a statement.
Officials said production will be moved to other facilities in the U.S. as part of a plan to streamline operations.
“We are sharing this news nearly six months in advance to give our employees time to prepare and to allow us to support them throughout the transition,” officials said in the statement.
correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the transfers at Elkay Plumbing as layoffs. The story has been edited to correct this error.
Copyright 2025 KWQC. All rights reserved.