ASHEVILLE – The maker of world-renowned synthesizers has slashed jobs at its manufacturing facility in Asheville, the city where Moog Music was based.
The move to cut what sources say were possibly more than half the existing jobs, including most of the production positions, came three months after the international corporation InMusic bought the company. Founded by inventor and sound engineer Bob Moog almost 50 years ago, Moog’s instruments have been played by the likes of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. All of its synthesizers were made in Asheville.
It is not clear the exact number of jobs lost. Local and corporate staff and spokespeople did not return Sept. 22 messages. Current and ex-workers declined to comment on the record, but several confirmed the layoffs.
Michelle Moog-Koussa, daughter of Moog and executive director of the Bob Moog Foundation and Moogseum, who lives in the Asheville are, said Sept. 22 she recently learned about the layoffs, but declined further comment.
The foundation and Moogseum are separate from the company.
In 2015, the company employed 62 in the synthesizer factory just blocks away from downtown Asheville. That number had grown to around 90 this past year, one source said. After InMusic’s June 13 acquisition, payroll was winnowed down by more than a dozen people. The Sept. 22 layoffs cut around 30 jobs, doing away with most workers who built the instruments.
Most of the synthesizers will now be made in Taiwan, the sources said.
inMusic has…
