SAKS BEGINS WORKFORCE REDUCTIONS AND STORE CLOSINGS AS PART OF HBC LIQUIDATION
Saks Global is starting to trim some of the redundancies arising from the company’s recent restructuring. The most significant move the company has made so far will be the recently announced closures of a Saks retail center in Palm Beach, FL, and a Saks fulfillment center in Le Vergne, TN.
In Palm Beach, Saks will shut down the Worth Avenue location, which it has operated since 1926. With 30,000 square feet of retail space, it isn’t clear how many jobs will be lost in the closure. Still, the company stated it will attempt to preserve as many jobs as possible by transferring existing employees to the six other nearby Saks locations in Florida. Workers unable to be accommodated will be offered severance packages.
According to WKRN Nashville, Saks is closing its La Vergne fulfillment center, which will likely dramatically impact the small town of 38,000. The fulfillment center is the town’s fifth-largest employer.
The fulfillment center closure will see the layoff of more than 450 jobs, a move initiated with a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Notice submitted to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce last week. The fulfillment center’s force reduction is scheduled to begin June 4th and complete by the end of November with the facility’s total closure.
The operations handled by the Tennessee center will be shifted to another Saks facility in Pottsville, PA. The Pennsylvania location is double the size of the facility the company is closing. It was not stated if the workforce will be enlarged to accommodate the additional workflow at the center.
In a public statement, Saks CEO Mark Metrick made it clear that these will not be the last moves the company will make as it tightens its belt. According to Metrick, the company aims to reduce expenditures by $500 M during the consolidation process and hopes to see the closure of no more than 10 of the 39 brick-and-mortar Saks Fifth Avenue locations.