Eby-Brown to Cut Jobs in Baltimore

Eby-Brown is a name that many of you are most likely not too familiar with, though the odds are good that if you spend any amount of time in convenience stores, well more likely if you have worked at one. So before we talk about the job cuts lets begin by looking at how the company has chosen to describe itself, “For over 120 years, Eby-Brown has been a leading convenience store supplier and wholesale food distributor of tobacco, candy, and convenience products. We are the largest privately owned distributor in the U.S. with: $4.5 Billion in Annual Sales, 13,500 Retail Locations Served, 7 Distribution Centers, 1,433,000 Square Feet of Warehouse Space, 2,000 Employee Members. Eby-Brown has been owned by members of the Wake family for over 55 years. Dick and Tom Wake continue to aggressively invest in our business so that we can provide the highest level of service to our customers.”

Sadly the company is getting ready to cut back on about 112 employees in the city of Baltimore according to information they submitted to the states board of employment. That will be enough jobs lost to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.” The only good news is that a mass layoff action means that workers must be given some advance notice before they are taken off of the payroll.

This is, as you can imagine, not the only job losses in food-based retail in the recent past. For those of you who missed out on our earlier coverage of the shutdown of a Vlassic plant by Pinnacle Foods here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed, “Sadly, for both pickle lovers and workers in the food manufacturing industry, the company is getting ready to shut down a facility in Sussex County that makes those tasty treats and the layoffs have begun…. In this case the company is not putting out too many details about the closures. We do know that the workers are beginning to be let go in waves between now and sometime in the middle of 2013 and that the facility is slated for a final closure. The company has not said if they are going to be helping the workers to find new positions within the company or if they are going to be giving any additional severance to the workers, except that required by the law in the case of a mass layoff action.”

Update: Eby-Brown hiring back. click here to know about latest openings at Granted.com.