After three decades in Tucson, Thirstystone Resources Inc. will move part of its operation to Texas, the company said.
Thirstystone manufactures drink coasters cut from sandstone quarried in Arizona and Utah. The products are sold through thousands of retailers.
Laurie Leahy, president of Thirstystone, said between 11 and 18 jobs will move to North Texas next month. The company's sales, marketing, packaging and shipping operations will make the move, while about 20 to 25 manufacturing jobs will stay here at the company's plant, 860 E. 19th Street.
Relocation is being offered to employees whose jobs are being moved, and those who prefer not to make the move will be given severance pay, she said.
The move was an economic decision, Leahy said. Thirstystone will lease warehouse space in Gainesville, Texas, for "significantly less" than it would cost to renew a lease on warehouse space in Tucson, she said.
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Leahy is also president of Lazart Productions Inc. in Gainesville, north of Dallas. Both Thirstystone and Lazart are owned by RAF Industries Inc., a private holding company based in Pennsylvania.
Thirstystone will be able to get some "economies of scale" by sharing some operations with Lazart in Texas, she said.
Besides the Thirstystone employees, the company's move will eliminate contract work performed by some two dozen people through a local program for the disabled.
Chuck Tiller, vice president of rehabilitation services for Beacon Group, said Thirstystone notified his agency about five months ago of the move.
Roughly half of the 24 people with disabilities and four Beacon supervisors have already moved to other programs or groups, he said. The remaining people will be out of the company by November, he added.
"I couldn't have asked for more time for transition," he said.
"They've been great to work with over the years. I hate to see them go. They provided great work for some of our people," Tiller said.
A few of the Beacon people had been there since the late '90s, he added.
People in the program worked mainly in the warehouse in the last stages of assembly and packaging of the products, he said.
A spokeswoman for Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc. said the agency had not been in contact with Thirstystone before the company's decision to move.
"We are always sorry to lose people who move to another location," said Laura Shaw, vice president for marketing and communications for TREO, the regional economic development and business-retention agency. "It sounds like a decision they reached some time ago."
Longtime Tucson business will move
