When La-Z-Boy announced last week that it would complete the permanent layoff of 180 employees in Newton on Sept. 16, 2022, it wasn’t a surprise.
It was a certainty that had been temporarily deferred since June 2020.
At the begin of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the company announced that it would close the Newton facility which has been in operation since 1960 causing the permanent lay off of about 300 employees. However, four months later, the company was faced with an unexpected demand for its furniture. The demand could only be met by bringing back some of those who were laid off.
“We have operated under temporary conditions,” Daniel Simoneau, General Manager of La-Z-Boy South, said. “It has been temporary all along.”
Faced with an unprecedented and unexpected demand for residential furniture, the company called back about half of the 300 employees under a temporary circumstance. Those that were called back in October 2020 knew that this would not stop their eventual lay off, Simoneau said. These employees were willing to come back despite knowing that the lay off was only deferred. Last week he praised those that were willing to come back and help the company complete orders.
“It speaks volumes for the workforce that we have here,” Simoneau said. “I would like to express appreciation of our dedicated employees that chose to come back under these temporary situations and assist the company. It’s a very dedicated group of employees that have been with us the last couple of years.”
Over the past two years, La-Z-Boy has added capacity to its manufacturing footprint and rebalanced production across more than 5 million square feet of North American manufacturing space to leverage efficiencies and manage its backlog, according to a press release issued by the company last week.
Not only has the number of employees at La-Z-Boy changed to meet the increased demand and anticipated changes, the function of the facilities have changed as well. The Philadelphia warehouse will be moving to the furniture assembly center located in downtown Newton, Simoneau said. When that move would be completed is yet to be determined, and it is expected that the employees in Philadelphia will shift to Newton as well, he added.
In its present state, La-Z-Boy continues to operate the previously mentioned furniture assembly center and the leather cutting facility both located in downtown Newton.
Export operations, previously housed in the old Newton Company building, were moved to the downtown facility about a month ago, Simoneau said. Plant 21 and the wood cutting department continue to operate from the Miss. Hwy. 15 location.
The company’s Newton assembly plant currently accounts for less than 5% of the La-Z-Boy branded business total upholstery production, according to the press release.
With the scheduled layoff of 180 employees in September, the Newton-based integrated internal supply and other functions will remain in operation and employ approximately 235 individuals, according to the release. Because of the current volatility of the economy it might still be possible for some of the laid off to find other opportunities with in the facilities currently operating in Newton, Simoneau said.
