ArvinMeritor in Fletcher will lay off employees for the first time since the company was founded in 1982.

The layoffs were announced despite an announcement last June that ArvinMeritor would invest $33.7 million to expand plants in Scotland and Henderson counties, adding 54 jobs in Laurinburg and 13 jobs at the Fletcher plant. Those new jobs were expected to have average annual wages of $31,484, not including benefits.

Brian Cavagnini, ArvinMeritor director of Carolina operations and Fletcher site manager, said he could not comment on the situation.

Company did confirm that they would reduce the hourly workforce by 47 employees effective Monday. The cause for the layoffs is the global economic state that every industry is facing currently, a spokesperson said. ArvinMeritor has 700 employees at its Fletcher plant.

ArvinMeritor Inc. is a premier global supplier of a broad range of integrated systems, modules and components for the motor vehicle industry.

The company serves commercial truck, trailer and specialty original equipment manufacturers and certain aftermarkets and light vehicle manufacturers.

The company, with 19,000 employees in 24 nations, serves commercial truck, trailer and light-vehicle and specialty-equpiment manufacturers.