AM I NEXT? NO LOVE -- LAYOFFS AT LOWE'S (updated)

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?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT ORCHARD SUPPLY HARDWARE (OSH)

As part of a major restructuring effort, the home improvement retailer, Mooresville, North Carolina-based Lowe’s, will be closing all 99 Orchard Supply Hardware stores in California, Oregon, and Florida and laying off approximately 4,000 employees. 

According to Lowe’s President and CEO, Marvin R. Ellison...

“We are committed to driving even stronger performance in the future by sharpening our focus on retail fundamentals and by limiting any projects and initiatives that take us away from our core mission of being a great omnichannel home improvement retailer. I would like to thank our associates for their hard work and commitment to the company. While it was a necessary business decision to exit Orchard Supply Hardware, decisions that impact our people are never easy. We will be providing outplacement services for impacted associates, and they will be given priority status if they choose to apply for other Lowe's positions." 

"In addition to the decision to exit Orchard Supply Hardware, we are developing plans to aggressively rationalize store inventory, reducing lower-performing inventory while investing in increased depth of high-velocity items. Exiting Orchard Supply Hardware and rationalizing inventory are the driving force behind the changes to Lowe's Business Outlook. Our strategic reassessment is ongoing as we evaluate the productivity of our real estate portfolio and non-retail business investments.  We will update you on the changes to our strategy at the upcoming analyst and investor conference in December [2018]."

Ironically, the closure comes five years after Lowe’s acquired San Jose, California-based Orchard Supply Hardware out of bankruptcy from Sear’s Holdings, the slow-moving disaster presided over by Eddie Lampert. Sears acquired the chain in 1996 and in an attempt at financial engineering to bolster the faltering Sears operation, spun off OSH as a separate business in 2012 – which then crashed and burned into bankruptcy in June 2013 when it was crushed by hundreds of millions of acquisition debt.

Are you wondering, Am I Next?