Largest U.S. band manufacturer plans to leave Ohio, send some production overseas

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(The Center Square) – While President Donald Trump continues to use tariffs to push for manufacturing to return to the United States, the largest manufacturer of band instruments in the United States is leaning toward the opposite.

Conn Selmer, the largest manufacturer of band instruments in the United States, has announced “tentative” plans to close its plant in Eastlake, Ohio plant this summer, the company said in a news release.

It would transfer its French horn production to the company's Elkhart, Indiana plant and take tuba, sousaphone and French horn production offshore. The Eastlake factory would be closed around June 30, the company said.

 “This proposed action is subject to negotiation with the union representing Conn Selmer’s hourly employees at its Eastlake plant,” the company said. “This tentative decision, if finalized, will streamline Conn Selmer’s U.S. operations by concentrating production in one professional brass factory and one percussion factory.”

The factory is the fifth largest in Eastlake, which has a population of about 18,000, Eastlake Mayor Kevin Castell told TCS. The closure would eliminate 150 jobs, the mayor said.

“It’s disappointing,” Castell said. “It’s a large loss for a community our size. I hope there’s some sort of resolution that we can come to. All we do is keep our line of communication open and touch base with them weekly if not more and see if we can do anything to help them. Our goal is to keep them here.”

The mayor met with a Conn Selmer senior manager at the plant.

“He said there wasn’t a lot he could share with me because they are in negotiations,” Castell said. “I don’t know what that means.”

The mayor is hopeful, however, that there is a chance the plant could stay in Eastlake.

The union representing employees at the plant did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Closing the Eastlake plant will improve the company’s efficiency, Conn Selmer told TCS in a statement.

“We have proudly built instruments in Elkhart, Indiana since 1875,” the company said. “The recent tentative decision regarding our Eastlake, OH facility will improve our competitiveness and better meet today’s market demands, while streamlining our U.S. operations by concentrating professional brass manufacturing in Elkhart, Indiana and percussion manufacturing in Monroe, North Carolina. We remain deeply committed to U.S. manufacturing, as we have been for more than 150 years.”