The Ellwood Group purchased Leistritz Corp. of Rural Hall, N.C., a closed-die forger of gas and steam turbine blades, in 2012. Late last year, Ellwood Advanced Components filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice with North Carolina’s Commerce Department indicating it will close its Rural Hall plant by mid-April 2016, with the first job cuts from its workforce of 144 starting by Jan. 17, 2014. The WARN Act notice is required if a company is conducting a job cut of more than 50 employees or if the plant is closing within a 60-day period. This news follows a pledge made within the past year by Ellwood Advanced Components, which operates the site, to create 55 full-time and full-time-equivalent jobs as part of a production expansion at the facility. Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. is the property owner of the site, but it is unclear whether the plant closing is tied to this fact.