Some sad news today. arvato Entertainment announced that it is closing its CD and DVD replication facility in Weaverville, NC and outsourcing its U.S. production and packaging to CDA (formerly Optical Experts Manufacturing) in Charlotte, NC.
According to published reports, the plant will shut down over the next few months, affecting roughly 120 workers.
For more information visit: www.arvato.com
Unedited press release follows:
arvato Entertainment and CDA Announce Agreement Involving Game, Standard Definition Disc Operations
GÜTERSLOH, Germany – arvato Entertainment Inc. and CDA, Inc. have agreed to transition arvato’s standard definition CD and DVD replication business and packaging support for games customers to CDA’s Charlotte facility to better focus both firms’ strategic business offerings in the United States.
arvato Entertainment will combine its global disc production for all Game customers at the company’s headquarters in Gütersloh (Germany). Meanwhile, CDA will provide packaging and fulfillment of discs for arvato’s U.S.-based games business as well as take over the CD and DVD production for the U.S. optical media market.
“This agreement represents an important step in our long-term strategy for the U.S. market, and we feel CDA has a track record of success in the disc replication business that will benefit our customers,” arvato Entertainment CEO Sven Deutschmann said. “Most importantly, we sought a leading disc replication partner that would be able to use the talents and resources of arvato’s current U.S. workforce.”
As part of the deal, arvato is discontinuing its replication activities in the United States and is closing the CD and DVD plant at Weaverville, North Carolina. CDA will work with Weaverville plant operations staff and employees to transition customer projects to CDA’s Charlotte plant. Due to the close proximity of the facilities, CDA anticipates a high number of arvato Entertainment’s employees transferring to CDA’s Charlotte facility.
“We’re excited about this agreement and the benefits it brings for our customers, employees, and our core business,” CDA’s CEO Ray Zerrusen said. “We look forward to working with arvato Entertainment and are pleased to join its global network.”
In recent months, CDA expanded its operations in anticipation of additional industry consolidation opportunities.
About arvato Entertainment
arvato Entertainment offers its business partners in the Games, Video, Audio, Sport and TV/Broadcast industries a wide range of services and solutions. Its European presence covers six countries. More than 1,500 employees in Europe provide the highest standards of service to their customers, and have been doing so for more than 50 years. arvato Entertainment is a market leader in integrated solutions across the entire value chain, from replication and ecommerce to Fulfillment, Distribution/Supply Chain Management and Electronic Content Distribution. All these processes are supported by innovative end-to-end IT systems. arvato Entertainment is part of arvato AG, a leading internationally networked provider of outsourced services…
About CDA
With more than 500 employees worldwide, CDA manufactures value for customers in the automotive, industrial, publishing, entertainment and medical industries through three distinct business units. CDA Impressing Solutions manufactures and replicates CDs, DVDs and BluRay discs; CDA Flash Media Solutions is a global leader in replication and fulfillment of industrial-grade flash memory in various markets including navigation systems in automobiles; and CDA Microfunctional Solutions is a sophisticated contract manufacturing process that yields precision-based micro products for a variety of uses, including automobile gesture controls, printed electronics and diffractive optical elements, among others.