Blue Bird Corporation is closing its Type C Vision school bus assembly line in Lafayette, Ga., in favor of centralizing all large bus production at its Fort Valley headquarters, the company announced.

Michael McCurdy, Blue Bird's vice president of human resources, said the Lafayette plant closure in no way reflects on the quality of the 350 plant employees who will be affected. The company was working with the Georgia Department of Labor as well as other companies in Lafayette to assist all employees being laid off.

"The employees and management at Blue Bird North Georgia have been recognized for producing a high quality school bus, and we thank them for their years of dedication," he added.

The Lafayette plant has been in operation since 1988. Blue Bird relocated its fabrication operation to Fort Valley in 2008, and the company added in a statement that the plant now has the capacity to absorb all current and future Type C production.

"This was a difficult decision, and one not arrived at without significant deliberation. However, in the face of the challenging U.S. economic climate, the school bus industry has declined in recent years and we recognize that we must adjust our production capacity to meet demand in order to remain competitive," said Greg Bennett, Blue Bird’s president and CEO.

He added that moving North Georgia’s assembly operations to Fort Valley centralizes all production operations, technical staff and services into a single facility, which includes its corporate headquarters. This centralization is expected to facilitate "significant efficiencies."

However, Blue Bird has reduced workforce at Fort Valley over the past year or so and continues to do so. Just this week, the marketing department was further down-sized as Director of Marketing Ron Smith was let go.