My guess is that they made two contradictory policies and didn't realize the combined effect.

Ah my mistake to omit that bit.

It was new ownership combined with an actual need for new machinery. The old lines were multiple decades old and being held together by creative engineering.

Now new more efficient machinery and some redundancies would be normal and kind of expected. But the manner in which it was done was the issue. Immediately alienated the entire workforce and lost the most skilled workers to boot. All tied together with a nice little bow of utterly incompetent planning regarding the implementation and procurement process. The final cherry on top was the complete inability to market the new product.

It was sad seeing a company that was profitable with good brand recognition and actual competitive advantages literally piss it all away inside 12 months of a 140 year history.