UPDATE: AUGUST 2, 2019 — MASS LAYOFF COSTS THOUSANDS OF LOWE’S EMPLOYEES THEIR JOB.
The company has announced that it will layoff its maintenance staff and assemblers as it outsources those functions. According to a company spokesperson, “We are moving to third-party assemblers and facility services to allow Lowe’s store associates to spend more time on the sales floor serving customers.”
The move comes as Marvin Ellison, the recently hired CEO (previously from Home Depot & J.C. Penney) continues the aggressive cost cutting that saw the company’s executive ranks thinned, 47 unprofitable stores closed, and the shuttering of OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware).
More on the OSH closure can be found here.
Original Post…
Mooresville, North Carolina–based Lowe's Companies, Inc., the home improvement retailer, has announced a restructuring and consolidation effort that will result in a major impact on employees.
600 positions in the company’s original corporate headquarters located in Wilkesboro, North Carolina will be asked to relocated 45 miles to the company’s corporate offices in Wilkesboro. It is expected that those employees who decline the move will be terminated.
Approximately 80 IT workers will be relocated to the company’s data center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
207 full time workers in the company’s cross-dock terminal located in Charlotte, North Carolina will be laid off. The Charlotte terminal will remain open as a distribution hubs – but the jobs will be outsourced to a third-party vendor. The company has similarly transferred other cross-dock terminal operations in Houston, Texas, and Charleston, South Carolina to third-party vendors. Cross-dock terminals allow for the temporary storage and shipment of large items that consumer’s normally do not take with them after purchase.
According to a company spokesperson, “This will bring teams that perform similar functions together, supporting greater collaboration and business performance. Wilkesboro continues to be a contact center and central production office, which employ more than 1,300 associates.” Another spokesperson added, the move is designed to improve “the collaboration and effectiveness of our corporate functions by having these teams work side by side.
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life, or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere ... are you now wondering, Am I Next?