Drilling firm Boart Longyear lays off about 40 Salt Lake workers

Drilling-services company Boart Longyear has told about 40 of its Salt Lake workers that they will be laid off from their jobs.

The company — which has headquarters in Salt Lake City and in Adelaide, Australia — said the layoffs were part of a staff reduction involving about 150 workers at the company's manufacturing facilities in Utah, Canada and Australia. The changes came "in light of unprecedented developments in the global economies," the company said in a news release last week.

"While our strategy over the past several years has focused on growth and expansion to solidify Boart Longyear's position as the industry leader, I expect that 2009 will be characterized by efficiency, cost control and conservative balance-sheet management," said president and chief operating officer Craig Kipp in a statement.

Boart Longyear is a global company that provides drilling services and products for the mining industry, as well as water and oil-sands exploration.

Spokesperson Jodi Monaco said Monday that the company employs about 850 people in Salt Lake City, where diamond-coring drill bits are manufactured at Boart Longyear's world headquarters and production facility. The company has approximately 10,000 employees with operations in 40 countries.

In July, the Governor's Office of Economic Development board approved a $3 million tax-credit incentive for Boart Longyear to expand its corporate headquarters operations. The expansion would mean more than 200 new jobs, paying twice the county median wage, according to board documents.

GOED spokesman Michael Sullivan said the job cuts announced by Boart Longyear would not affect the company's plans to expand its Salt Lake operations, nor would the layoffs impact the incentive.

After projecting a 25 percent increase in total revenues for 2008 over the $1.5 billion posted last year, the company said it expected total revenues for 2008 to be 22 percent higher than those of 2007.

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