MCGREGOR (September 1, 2010)—More than 65 people gathered Wednesday evening in McGregor to pray for the 139 employees of the Smead Manufacturing Co. facility, which will close early next year.

The McGregor Ministerial Alliance sponsored the community prayer vigil Wednesday in the parking lot of the plant.

Smead, a Minnesota-based office filing-products and records-management company, confirmed in August that it will close the 40-year-old production and distribution facility in McGregor, which opened in 1971.

“Over the years, Smead has been reducing its costs through automation, lean initiatives and selected outsourcing,” said Sharon Hoffman Avent, the company’s CEO and president.

“Our employees have been very supportive of Smead and have met and exceeded our customers’ needs over the years, but it has not been enough to keep us competitive in this global economy,” she said.

“Last fall a team was assembled to review our current and future capacity needs. After a thorough and careful analysis of the data collected by the team, Smead has determined it has more capacity than it needs,” she said.

The company plans to work with employees and state and local officials to help the workers find new jobs.

The privately held company was founded in 1906, was acquired by the Hoffman family in 1916 and has been a woman-owned business since 1955.