Projo Biz Blog

Ring manufacturer Jostens Inc., which made the championship rings for the last three New England Patriots Super Bowl victories, plans to close its Attleboro, Mass., plant in early February, laying off about 177 full-time and seasonal workers.

“We expect that most of the positions [at the Attleboro plant] will be available up through early February,” said Rich Stoebe, Jostens director of communications. After that, “We will discontinue operations,” Stoebe said in a telephone interview yesterday.

The Attleboro plant, at 96 Frank Mossberg Drive, mostly makes high school rings, That work will gradually be transferred to the Jostens plant in Denton, Texas, Stoebe said.

The Denton plant will be expanded to accommodate the extra work, he said.

The Attleboro plant, located on property that Jostens owns not far from Route 95, is the company’s only plant in New England. The company has not decided what to do with the property, Stoebe said.

Jostens, of Bloomington, Minn., will continue to sell rings in the region; the shutdown of the Attleboro plant will have no impact on the company’s salespeople who are based in New England, Stoebe said.

In a statement issued yesterday, the company said it decided to consolidate its ring manufacturing operations in Texas “in order to take advantage of scale, enhanced technologies and improve workflow efficiencies.”

Mike Bailey, president and CEO of Jostens, said in the statement, “I would like to thank our Attleboro employees for their many contributions. We are committed to supporting each employee during the transition and making the change seamless to our customers.”

Jostens said it began jewelry production in Attleboro in 1962.

In addition to the New England Patriot rings, Jostens also made the World Series rings for the 2004 Boston Red Sox. (A manufacturer for the rings for the 2007 Red Sox World Series team has not been chosen; Jostens is a candidate, Stoebe said.)

Jostens has gone through a number of ownership changes. It is currently a unit of Visant Corp., of Armonk, N.Y.

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