CHICAGO – The company that makes the gold-plated Oscar statues will lay off almost 100 employees in the process of being bought out. But some workers could be rehired, it said, and the one-of-a-kind awards will still be produced on Chicago's north side.

R.S. Owens & Co. Inc. said in a notice this week to the Illinois Department of Commerce that it will lay off 95 of its roughly 250 workers on Dec. 17, the day it will be taken over by St. Regis Crystal. St. Regis has been an Owens competitor with home offices in Markham, Ontario, and Indianapolis.

Owens has made the statues for about 30 years and will continue to manufacture both the Oscars and the Emmy Awards statues, company President Scott Siegel said Friday. Most of the laid-off employees have applied for jobs with St. Regis, he said, though not all will be rehired.