Production and manufacturing have been placed on hold at Schletter Inc.’s facility in Shelby.

The move came as a surprise for some small businesses contracted to do janitorial and landscaping work, according to Mel Lockhart of Spotless Janitorial. Lockhart had an employee who did full-time janitorial work at Schletter.

Payments for the employees’ work started coming in slower and eventually completely ceased, leaving Lockhart to cover her wages for the months of February and March, he said.

“Something went wrong with their business, but they didn’t give anybody a heads up, and they left people with unpaid bills,” Lockhart said.

The Schletter group then announced it is reorganizing its business in the United States and that its Schletter Inc. subsidiary in Shelby has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in order to “sort out its current financial situation.”

Schletter is a manufacturer of solar panel mounting hardware that can be installed on the ground, roofs or carports.

The company had 120 employees in Shelby prior to filing chapter 11. Now 13 employees remain at Shelby site, focused on the company’s reorganization, according to Kristin Reese, of the Cleveland County Economic Development Partnership.

Reese said the Cleveland County Economic Development Partnership hopes to help connect the company’s displaced workers with other manufacturers in the county.

“While this is certainly an unfortunate situation, nearly every manufacturer in Cleveland County is hiring right now, so we feel very confident about our ability to connect some of Schletter’s displaced workers with available careers in our community,” Reese said.

Reese encourages former employees who need assistance with job placement to contact NC Works at 704-480-5114.

In a press release, Schletter stated that its financial situation was the result of launching a new product before it was ready for high-volume production combined with the effect of the solar tariffs.

The cost of carrying through the large scale projects involving the new product, G-Max, was higher than planned due to the premature launch, which left the company with a financial burden which led to filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to the release.

Schletter group CEO Tom Graff said in a statement that the chapter 11 proceeding does not mean the company plans to fully withdraw from the United States market.

“North America remains an important and growing market for our brand, and we will continue to have a strong presence there,” Graff said.

The company’s plans could include operations beginning again at the local facility.

“We have heard from company officials who seem very intent and focused on the reorganization, and they remain hopeful about potentially restarting operations at the Shelby-Cleveland County location,” Reese said.

Casey White can be reached at 704-669-3339 or cwhite@shelbystar.com.