If you’re a car enthusiast in America, you know the name Edelbrock—but it looks like the future of “the most respected name in performance” might be up in the air.
One of Redondo Beach’s longstanding newspapers, The Daily Breeze, reported earlier this week that Edelbrock is shutting down its headquarters in Torrance, California. The paper acquired a notice sent to the state Employment Development Department notifying them of 270 employee layoffs that began on January 15 and would end by March 31, 2021.
From the article:
Neva Burke, Edelbrock’s vice president of human resources, didn’t give a reason for the Torrance shutdown in her letter to the EDD, although she said some of the operations will be relocated to the company’s casting foundries in San Jacinto.
She didn’t reveal how many displaced workers, if any, might be shifted to that location. Edelbrock is owned by Evanston, Ill.-based Industrial Opportunity Partners, which also declined to discuss the Torrance closure.
It’s not totally clear what this all means for the company, but the closure of the facility Edelbrock has used since its founding in 1938 doesn’t seem to bode particularly well. There are five other facilities around the country that are not currently impacted by the move—but, again, it’s not clear if the closing of the Torrance facility is indicative of a larger issue or if it’s just a matter of consolidation.
According to legend, Vic Edelbrock Sr. moved from his family’s Kansas home to California after his family’s grocery store burned down, where he found his place within the mechanical side of hot rod culture. With no off-the-shelf parts capable of delivering the performance he wanted, Edelbrock started making them himself. And when you’ve got a product people want, you might as well start selling it. Since then, the company has become one of the leaders in aftermarket parts for American cars.