STR Holdings Inc.’s financial quagmire deepened in 2016, leaving the Enfield solar power equipment maker with a net loss of $15.9 million, or 86 cents per share.
That was even worse than its 2015 net loss of $9.5 million, or 52 cents per share.
As a result of lagging business in China, the company plans to shut its factory there and is looking to India instead, Chairman and CEO Robert S. Yorgensen said STR’s annual report.
STR expects to continue to operate a plant in Spain “and to continue to occupy our headquarters in Enfield,” Yorgensen said in the report, filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A fire in October damaged a portion of the China facility’s production line.
“In light of continued difficulties in the China market, we have decided to wind down our China manufacturing operations substantially,” Yorgensen said. STR will keep a small staff in the factory to manage the process, he said.
The facility may continue limited production for a few remaining customers and to use up inventory of raw materials, Yorgensen said.
Meanwhile, STR has been working to find a partner in India and plans to begin commercial-scale production in the second quarter of 2017, Yorgensen said.
China’s Zhenfa Energy Group owns a 51 percent interest in STR and assists the company with the marketing, branding, and selling of its products to Chinese solar module manufacturers.
But even with Zhenfa’s assistance, STR has had difficulty attracting enough customers to be profitable, Yorgensen said. The company has operated at a loss in China, he said.
STR Holdings was founded in Springfield in 1944 as DeBell & Richardson Inc. and moved to Enfield in 1946. In 1976, it became Springborn Laboratories Inc., and in 1995 it changed its name to STR.
The company sold its plant in East Windsor in 2014 to SBS USA Realty LLC, on behalf of Steel Building Systems of Australia. STR then moved its corporate and research and development operations from the East Windsor facility to its Enfield headquarters, which employs fewer than 50 workers.
