NEW SALISBURY, Ind. — Child Craft Industries, a family owned company that has made cribs and other child-related furniture for nearly a century, will lay off most of its work force and shift production to Honduras.

The layoff of about 80 workers is expected to take place between next month and September 2016, according to a filing with the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.


Company executives notified the state agency of the planned layoffs and production shift last month while applying for displaced-worker benefits, citing overseas competition and the need to outsource its furniture manufacturing as the reasons for the moves.
They also indicated the plant about 15 miles west of Louisville, Ky., may be shut down.
Child Craft, founded in Salem in 1911, makes wooden baby cribs, changing tables and children’s bedroom furniture that’s sold through Sears, USA Baby and other retailers.
A message seeking comment was left today for Mark Suvak, the company’s vice president and chief financial officer.
Child Craft President William Suvak, who is Mark Suvak’s father, said in interviews three years ago that the company was on the brink of bankruptcy after a flash flood in Salem caused more than $10 million in damage to its equipment and inventory.
The company obtained $8.9 million in federal loans to help move to New Salisbury, where the shutdown of another furniture maker, Keller Manufacturing Co., provided a factory.
Ray Moistner, executive director of the Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen’s Association, said Indiana’s wood-products industry has been hurt by imports from China and other countries where low wages and lax environmental laws make it far less expensive to produce goods.
“Obviously, overseas competition has been the big factor,” he said.