Last week, Steelcase Inc. announced it will be cutting 300 jobs from its Lithia Springs plant and permanently closing the facility by May 2009.

Steelcase Inc. spokeswoman Jeanine Holquist said the discontinued jobs will include manufacturing and plant support positions. Some positions, she said, will be relocated to other plants.

“The work will be moving to our Athens, Ala. plant and there are cases where positions could move, but determined on a case by case basis,” she said. “Over two years, approximately 250 jobs will be added to the Athens facility.”

The cutbacks, Ms. Holquist said, are a combination of poor economic conditions and a planned reduction in plants.

“While we are continuing to reinvent our manufacturing system and have reduced our manufacturing footprint by millions of square feet over the past several years, the downturn in the economy has played a role in our decision to move forward at this time with the Lithia Springs closing.”

Closing the Lithia Spring plant, the company reported, is expected to save $40 million.

The Lithia Springs plant, Ms. Holquist added, might not be the only plant to see cutbacks.

“We have issued 300 warn letters to manufacturing employees in other parts of the country, but have not yet determined whether or not we will need to take action against them,” she said.

Steelcase Inc. is a $2.3 billion a year Grand Rapids, Mich. based company with 13,000 employees at nine plants in the United States and 13 overseas that specializes in office furniture and supplies.

Steelcase began in 1912 as The Metal Office Furniture Company in Grand Rapids and received its first patent in 1914 for a steel Today, the company focuses on interior architecture, furniture and technology. The company changed its name to Steelcase in 1954 and became a publicly held company in 1998.