LEWISTON — Modula, an Italian company that makes vertical storage and retrieval systems for warehouses, has shut down production in Lewiston and is consolidating its manufacturing operations in Ohio.

Modula has been operating at 90 Alfred A. Plourde Parkway since 2007, when System Logistics bought the former Diamond Phoenix facility. Modula was part of System Logistics at the time. In 2014, the two companies split, Modula stayed, and in 2015 it invested more than $10 million in manufacturing technology here.

By 2019, the company had grown to more than 100 employees working across three shifts, and was Modula’s primary manufacturing facility for the U.S. and Canada.

In 2020, the company added a production plant in Franklin, Ohio, with triple the capacity of the Lewiston facility, and earlier this year it broke ground on a $36 million expansion of the Ohio plant. According to a story distributed by Newsfile, the expansion is part of a strategic plan to bring production and logistics together under one roof in a central U.S. location.

Since production halted in March, a small team of workers remains to decommission the plant. The Sun Journal contacted Modula requesting additional information but had not heard back by early Tuesday afternoon.

The company did not return calls or emails requesting confirmation and additional information about the workforce. The Maine Department of Labor said the company did not file a plant closure notice as required under state and federal laws, but said it may have been exempt.

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