A manufacturing operation here that dates back 106 years reportedly will shut down by the end of this year.

LTI Boyd, of Modesto, Calif., which now owns the longtime rubber and foam product manufacturing enterprise here that formerly did business as Nott-Atwater Co., plans to shutter the plant at 1309 N. Bradley, sources say.

Dave Smith, plant manager, couldn't be reached for comment, and an LTI Boyd spokeswoman declined to discuss the matter, but a source familiar with the planned closure confirmed it and said it will affect a work force of about 50 employees.

LTI Boyd was formed about two months ago when LTI Flexible Products, of Rogers, Minn., which owned the plant here, merged with Modesto-based Boyd Corp., bringing together two makers of custom fabricated gaskets and sealing products, according to the LTI Boyd website and online industry reports.

The website shows that in addition to its Modesto headquarters and its Spokane plant, the company has operations in Portland, Ore.; Rogers, Minn.; Elkhart, Ind.; Gaffney, S.C.; Fairburn, Ga.; and Shenzhen, China.

In an Aug. 1 article about the merger posted online, trade publication Plastics News quoted Scott Perry, vice president of New York-based Sentinel Capital Partners, as saying that all of four of LTI Flexible Products' locations—in Rogers, Elkhart, Fairburn, and here—would remain open. Sentinel, a private equity firm, owns LTI.

On its website, LTI describes itself as "a leading designer, manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of extruded, die-cut, and molded flexible rubber and plastic components and sealing systems for industrial applications." Regarding sales, it says, "The combined company has the No. 1 position in North America heavy-duty trucking, as well as leading global positions in electronics, recreation vehicle, agriculture equipment, construction equipment, aerospace, and industrial market segments."

Nott-Atwater, which was founded here in 1905, occupied a 30,000-square-foot building near downtown at 157 S. Monroe from 1913 to 1992, when it moved to a 16,000-square-foot distribution plant that it constructed at the site on Bradley. It later substantially expanded that facility.

At the time, it had about 20 employees and was manufacturing industrial gaskets and distributing conveyor belts, mostly for customers in the lumber and mining industries. It told the Journal for a story published in 2000 that it had sold off the last of its conveyor-belt making division—a mainstay of the company for decades—to make room for further expansion of diverse gasket and die-cut manufacturing operations it had built up over the prior 20 years. An executive said the company expected to post sales of about $7 million that year.

In 2005, Nott-Atwater added about 14,500 square feet of space to its then 31,500-square-foot office and warehouse facility on Bradley, but its general manager declined to discuss the reasons for the expansion. It wasn't immediately clear when LTI Flexible Products bought Nott-Atwater's assets.