Eagle Industries laid off about 300 production employees this week, but the down time should be temporary: Owners of the custom build furniture-making company are in negotiations with out-of-town investors for the sale of the company.

“The company has a letter-of-intent to purchase us, and our attorneys and bankers are trying to finalize everything this week,” said James Bond, vice president of sales and marketing. “They had auditors in looking at the books and asked us to not run production this week while everything was being finalized.”

Bond said the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce helped bring in a turnaround specialist from the University of Kentucky’s Small Business Development Center that was the catalyst for the deal, which should be made public soon.

Eagle’s human resources department is working today with employees to help them file unemployment insurance claims. Eagle has about 300 employees, Bond said.

Eagle currently is owned by five supervisors who purchased the company out of bankruptcy in 2010, four of whom helped start the company originally, Bond said.

The company’s website said Eagle came to Bowling Green in 1992 from California, first as American Furniture Co., operating with 50 people in a 60,000 square-foot-space. It became Eagle in 1994 and now operates in 625,000 square feet off Raven Street.

“I won’t lie to you – the last three or four years have been tough for American manufacturers, particularly competing with cheaper Asian markets,” Bond said. “But production has picked up, particularly since we brought back our bedroom line. The economy is looking up, and the stock market is looking up, so things are improving.”

Bond said they had been trying to keep the sale quiet until it was complete.

“We didn’t want to burst anyone’s bubble if it didn’t happen,” he said. “We had hoped to have everything wrapped up before now.”

Bond said he expects he will continue to work for the new investors, but he is not sure in what capacity or how other management positions will be handled.

Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon is hopeful that the company’s plans go through.

“Eagle Industries does a lot of business across the country and employs a great many people here in Bowling Green,” Buchanon said. “We are hopeful that their business grows and continues to provide jobs for our area for years to come.”