KDH Defense Systems to Cut 280 Jobs

KDH Defense Systems, Inc. is a name that you may have heard if you work in law enforcement, or if you have ever been on an active combat duty in one of the armed forces. For those of you who do not fall into either one of those categories lets begin by taking a look at how the company chooses to describe itself before we talk about the job cuts that the company is making, “KDH Defense Systems, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of American-made custom solutions for body armor. Building on its legacy of innovative, market-leading ballistic technologies for the U.S. Department of Defense, the company designs, manufactures and distributes high-performance body armor for military, federal government and law enforcement agencies.”

Sadly the company is getting ready to cut back on about 280 workers at its Eden facility in order to set its balance sheet to right. Job cuts of this size will be enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the company chooses to describe itself, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.” The only good news would be that if the company manages to trigger a mass layoff action the workers would have to be given several weeks of notification before they are put out of a job.

Interestingly the company, in its latest release, chose to highlight a technical innovation rather than talk about the impending staff reductions, ” KDH Defense Systems, Inc. (KDH), a leading manufacturer of American-made custom body armor solutions for military, law enforcement and federal agencies, today announced that four new ballistic models have been certified by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, under the new NIJ Standard-0101.06. These new models are available for immediate purchase in concealable and tactical body armor configurations. “We are pleased to receive these notices of compliance from the NIJ which include two Level II and two Level IIIA certifications for both male and female models,” said Paul Larkin, National Sales Director for KDH. “KDH currently has eleven models now certified under the NIJ .06 Standard and others awaiting approval.” Dave Herbener, Chief Executive Officer for KDH commented, “With these new certified packages, and others to be announced in the near future, KDH can provide our law enforcement customers and federal agencies with innovative options to protect them against nearly any potential threat level they may encounter in the line of duty. These technologically advanced ballistic packages underscore KDH’s commitment to developing and providing the very best in life-saving ballistic protection while simultaneously allowing for comfort, mobility, functionality and operational performance.”

No hard date for the job cuts have been given at this time.