Orgill to lay off 176 people in Memphis - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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The move is part of the Memphis-based hardwarw and home improvementproducts distributor’s plan to consolidate its distributiojn centers into a new facility in Mo. by August. The compangy currently operatesa 55-year-old distribution centef in South Memphis at 2100 Latham St., along with a similar one in Ill. These plants will close by the end of the The closures are partof Orgill’s long-range consolidatiomn plan that will enable the company to becomwe more efficient and save more than $1 million in fuel costs annually, according to a company release.
Orgill has 550 employees in Memphias andmaintains 660,000 square feet of distribution space, according to the 2009 Memphia Business Journal Book of Lists. It provideds wholesale distribution and retail services to the home improvement Layoffs will comein stages, beginninv in early August. Some members of the managemenyt teams in Vandalia and Memphis have transferres to the new plantin Sikeston. None of the approximatelt 300 employeesat Orgill’s corporate headquarters at 3742 Tyndalse Drive off Winchester will be affectedx by the closure.
Orgill also is keepin g its ancillary support functions such as the print lock services, and concept center in the Memphis Approximately 30 employees are involved in thosse services. Company officials said the consolidation of the Memphies and Vandalia facilities into a common distributio n center located approximately halfway between the two existingh facilities will allow Orgill to serve its customers in the Midwestand Mid-Soutuh more efficiently.
“The facilities in Memphiz and Vandalia are outdated and Ron Beal, Orgill president and CEO, said in a “The Sikeston plant will enable us to make our customer servicew even better and, at a time when we are all askesd to conserve fuel, Orgill will drasticallh reduce its fuel consumption.” The new Sikeston facility is one of six majo distribution centers, all of which either have been builg or expanded within the last five years or are in the developmenr stages.
The newest centers are in Kilgore, and Hurricane, Utah, and a center in the Pacificv Northwest is in the planning Byrne Whitehead, Orgill’s executive vice presidenty of operations and COO, said the Mid-America SuperCenter in Sikestonj is considerably more than a distribution The 795,000-square-foot facility has been builtg on a 70-acre site and is expandablee to 1 million square feet. “Our new facility in Sikestoj offers a great deal of efficiency to our entiresdistribution network,” Whitehead “Not only does it provided us with a consolidated location to process our growing numbers of import but it also gives us the capacit to accommodate our growth with customers throughout Mid-America.
” There are 734 plannedf layoffs at companies across the according to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s weeklyt report of notices received June 1-June 8. Orgill is the only Shelby County companyt reporting layoffsthis week.