ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Japanese automotive supplier plans to close its Elizabethtown plant at the end of 2025, according to a document written in Japanese and filed with the stock market regulator in Japan.
Akebono Brake Industry Co. employs 629 people making brakes at the plant at 300 Ring Road in Elizabethtown, according to the filing.
The plant opened in 1987, according to a Kentucky business directory.
The announcement filed in Japan says the company is moving to a "one factory system" in the United States after closing plants in Clarksville, Tennessee, and in Columbia, South Carolina, in 2020.
Akebono also has a plant in Glasgow, Kentucky, that employed 795 as of 2018.
The Elizabethtown plant makes "disc brakes, drum brakes (and) high-performance brakes," according to the announcement.
Tim Vowels has worked at Akebono since 1994, and considered the plant the best place to work in Elizabethtown.
"Just kind of overwhelmed," Vowels said. "Just disbelief, and what are we gonna do now, and how are you gonna take care of your family."
No one from the Akebono plant in Elizabethtown, nor its U.S. headquarters in Michigan, could be reached for comment.
WDRB News reached out to Rick Games, the president and COO of Elizabethtown-Hardin County Industrial Foundation, who released the following statement:
"The Elizabethtown-Hardin County Industrial Foundation is saddened to hear the news of Akebono Brake Industry Co., Ltd. upcoming closure of its Akebono Brake, Elizabethtown Plant. For 35 years, Akebono has been a key player in industry and advanced manufacturing in Elizabethtown and Hardin County. We are grateful for the measured and strategic closure set to conclude December 2025. This time will allow our community to rally around the organization's most important resource - its people.
In the coming months, EIF will be working closely with our local workforce partners including the Kentucky Career Center-Lincoln Trail and Elizabethtown Community and Technical College to help Akebono team members find new positions in a community overflowing with opportunity."
