Fender Guitars Clarifies 'Temporary Closure' Of Its US Manufacturing Hub In Riverside County

CORONA, CA — Despite a state filing indicating that Fender's guitar manufacturing headquarters in Riverside County is temporarily closing, the 533 employees at the location will still have jobs, the company confirmed Tuesday.

In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filed with the state on Oct. 15, Fender Musical Instruments Corp. at 311 Cessna Circle reported it would temporarily close Dec. 14.

Fender Chief Communications Officer Christina Stejskal said in an emailed statement to Patch that the WARN filing is related to the company's holiday policy, and nothing more.

"The notice relates to Fender’s standard holiday inventory quiet weeks, scheduled for December 14 through December 31," Stejskal wrote. "During this period, employees may have the option to work. The notice is simply intended to provide employees with advance visibility so they can plan accordingly.

"There are no layoffs associated with these quiet weeks, and employees will return in the new year," Stejskal continued.

The year-end shutdown is part of Fender's normal annual operations and is not a new practice, Stejskal said.

While a WARN filing for the holiday quiet period is new for the company, Stejskal said Fender did so as part of ongoing efforts "to strengthen internal processes and improve transparency."

The state notice came after "an evolved and more proactive approach to formal notifications this year. There has been no fundamental change in our annual operating practices," Stejskal continued.

Fender's Southern California presence is long-standing. Leo Fender founded the company in 1938 in Fullerton as "Fender's Radio Service" and sold it in 1965 to CBS for a reported $13 million.

The company changed hands again and was renamed "Fender Musical Instruments Corporation" in 1985, with a manufacturing plant built afterward in Corona.

Today, Fender is headquartered in Phoenix, Ariz., but the Corona plant on Cessna Circle serves as the company's U.S. manufacturing hub.