HIBBING, MN — Kimball Electronics will close its electronics manufacturing plant in Hibbing by next March and lay off some 200 employees, according to local news reports.
 
Kimball executives have not officially commented on the report.
 
“I think everyone was just hoping some miracle would happen and they’d keep it open,” the site's founder Bonnie Fena told a local paper. Fena is no longer with the company.
 
However, there had been rumblings for months that Kimball, which acquired the facility through its buyout of Reptron in 2006, would shut it down.
 
The five-building, 100,000 sq. ft. plant employed more than 600 workers at its peak.