O'sullivan Industries, Inc.:

Two years after filing for bankruptcy protection, O'Sullivan Industries is closing its Lamar plant, leaving 735 people to look for jobs and the southwest Missouri town with 1 million square feet of manufacturing space to fill. The announcement that the maker of ready-to-assemble furniture would shut down sometime capped months of financial uncertainty for Lamar's largest employer. In March, O'Sullivan reduced all employees' pay by 6.6 percent and said it was suspending matching contributions to savings and profit-sharing plans to increase its cash flow. O'Sullivan, like other ready-to-assemble furniture companies, was going strong until a few years ago, when imports and a sharp rise in particle board prices hit the industry.