Navistar to close Indianapolis foundry, cut 180 jobs

Navistar plans to close an Indianapolis foundry that makes engine blocks and heads, cutting about 180 jobs.

"We've determined that leveraging our suppliers for these components will reduce our engine costs, improve our overall manufacturing capacity utilization, and free up additional resources to invest in our core North America truck and parts business," Persio Lisboa, Lisle-based Navistar's president of operations, said in a statement today.

The move is expected to cut operating costs about $13 million a year, the company said. Navistar took an $11 million charge in the fourth quarter related to the move and expects to take another $40 million in charges in the first half of 2015.

The company said it would complete closing the foundry by next summer.

Cars.com cuts 32 Chicago jobs

Cars.com cut 32 jobs last week at its Chicago headquarters in a 2.5 percent headcount reduction that comes just months after it was acquired by media giant Gannett.

The online car classified ads company, which has about 1,300 employees, mainly in Chicago, is also dismissing the workers following the promotion last month of Cars.com veteran Alex Vetter, who replaced Dan Jauernig at the top of the company.

Gannett acquired Cars.com from Chicago-based Classified Ventures, which sold off its businesses this year, including Apartments.com, after its newspaper owners decided to cash in on the growth they had seen in the digital era. McLean, Va.-based Gannett was one of the five newspaper companies that owned Classified Ventures, including Tribune, McClatchy, A.H. Belo and Graham Holdings.

Instead of selling its stake in Cars.com, though, Gannett opted to increase its stake as part of its $1.8 billion Cars.com purchase.

“We are taking various actions to achieve our growth plans and become a more customer-focused enterprise,” the company said in a statement. “This includes some staffing adjustments in different places across the company designed to reduce complexity in the organization.”

Classified Ventures sold Apartments.com to Washington, D.C.-based Costar Group in March for $585 million.