Schaumburg, IL – After less than a year of operations, Motorola’s smartphone manufacturing plant in Fort Worth, Texas has been slated for closure by the end of 2014.

The Fort Worth factory employs about 700 workers who assemble the Moto X smartphones for the US market from parts produced in Asia. The plant is operated by Singapore-based international contract electronics manufacturer Flextronics Ltd.

Motorola was acquired in 2012 for $12.4 billion by Google, which announced earlier this year that it would sell Motorola to Chinese multinational computer technology giant Lenovo for $2.9 billion. The sale is expected to close by the end of the year.

lllinois-based Motorola envisioned that the Texas facility would supply US consumers with Moto X smartphones within five days, substantially faster than could be accomplished by importing them from overseas.

Moto X sales have slumped forcing the company was forced to cut the price of the phone and shoulder decreased profit margins.

The company said that it will continue to make the Moto X in China, Brazil “and other, more affordable locations,” where the costs for labor and shipping aren’t as high.

06/04/2014