Ashley Furniture plans over 100 layoffs as it closes NC plant in consolidation move
A consolidation move by Ashley Furniture means over 100 layoffs in Iredell County.
Ashley Furniture Industries, based in Wisconsin, will permanently close its Statesville facility at 607 Meachum Road on Nov. 15. That will result in 111 layoffs, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) filed last month with the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
The letter of notice was filed Sept. 15 and received Sept. 29.
Jobs affected range from assembly and ready-to-assemble support positions to supervisor and management roles.
The global furniture company is closing its Statesville center to consolidate operations at its manufacturing plant in Advance, according to the WARN report.
The Advance site is about about 33 miles northeast of the Statesville plant. And Statesville is about 40 miles north of Charlotte.
Some employees at the Statesville furniture distribution center will be offered transfers to work in Advance and there are “many employment opportunities,” Travis Wagner, executive vice president of Ashley Furniture’s global manufacturing, said in the filing.
Ashley Furniture will provide busing or shuttles to transport employees from Nov. 16 to Jan. 31 when the Statesville plant closes, according to the report.
Ashley has operated the Statesville manufacturing facility for three years and has 117 employees there, company spokesman Cole Bawek said in an email to The Charlotte Observer on Monday. Many of the employees have accepted new jobs in Advance, Bawek said.
About Ashley Furniture
The privately-held Ashley Furniture has more than 17,000 employees nationwide and over 35,000 worldwide.
It also has more than 30 million square feet of manufacturing and distribution space, according to Ashley Furniture’s website. Headquartered in Arcadia, Wisconsin, Ashley was founded in 1945 and operates in 155 countries.
Ashley has 32 stores in North Carolina, including seven in the Charlotte region, according to the company.
This story was originally published October 3, 2022 at 12:41 PM.