Apr. 27—About 20 employees were abruptly laid off Tuesday morning at local electric lawnmower manufacturer Mean Green's Hamilton and Ross Twp. facilities.

The layoffs came without warning, former Mean Green employee Daniel Ault told the Journal-News. Ault began at the company's Ross Twp. facility last October before relocating to the company's new Hamilton expansion site, opened in December.

Generac, the parent company of Mean Green, told the Journal-News that "approximately 20 people were impacted by the workforce reduction." Ault estimated the layoffs reduced the Hamilton site's workforce by about half.

"I moved to the new facility and everything was going great, then all of a sudden they laid us off," Ault said. "They just gave us a booklet about unemployment and they're paying us through this week and they're paying out our vacation."

Late last year when Mean Green, a subsidiary of Generac Holdings LLC (NYSE: GNRC), announced its new 100,000 square-foot Hamilton manufacturing facility, the company characterized the new facility as a response to the growing demand for all-electric, zero-turn mowers; a product that the company introduced to the consumer market over a decade ago.

In a statement Tuesday, Generac said: "Given current outdoor power equipment trends, we've consolidated and eliminated some positions in Ohio. Individuals impacted by the change have been notified."

John Matthew Gay Jr., a high currency wiring specialist who joined Mean Green a year ago, said he, too, was caught "completely off guard" when he was laid off Tuesday morning.

"We noticed they hired security guards for the day, and then one-by-one they walked us into the office saying that they overbuilt on their demands and that they would no longer need multiple positions anymore and that they would have to let go of a chunk of their workforce," Gay told the Journal-News.

Gay said the workers were let go because the company produced too many mowers and were left with an inventory that it couldn't sell quickly enough.

"They overbuilt on all of their mowers to where they ran out of room," Gay said. "We basically didn't have anything left to do, so they let go of about 20 of us."

In the past year, Generac's stock price has dropped about 59%. At the time of reporting, it sits at $93.75 a share.