Big Lots, the furniture, home décor, discount and liquidation chain will permanently close its Apple Valley distribution center at 18880 Navajo Road by the end of October, entailing the lay off of the 349 employees now working there.
In a letter to the California Employment Development Department, San Bernardino County Workforce Development Department Director Bradley Gates and Apple Valley Mayor Scott Nassif, Big Lots Vice President for Talent Development and Distribution Center Human Resources Julie Holbein stated Big Lots, Inc. is hereby providing you with notice that Big Lots will be permanently closing the Apple Valley Distribution Center.
Holbein sad the company was doing so in accordance with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act and Chapter 4 of the California Labor Code to allow those impacted to make as timely of an adjustment to the circumstance as possible.
Those being let go include seven clerical staff, 192 material handlers, 38 equipment operators, an administrative assistant, 15 asset protection officers, two conveyor maintenance technicians, five maintenance technicians, four inventory auditors, four inventory control troubleshooters, 11 operations coordinators, one payroll/wage administraor, four production auditors, two senior conveyor maintenance technicians, seven senior maintenance technicians, three systems speicalists, three building maintenance technicians, one general manager, one human resources manager, 11 industrial housekeeprs, one inventory control manager, one maintenance/buuilding services manager, four operations managers, one systems supervisor, one director of distribution opreations one human resources representative, one asset protection manager, one production manager, two asset protection supervisors, two maintenance supervisors and 22 distribution center supervisors.
According to the Holbein’s letter, “All associates who are involuntarily terminated as a result of the closure will receive pay and benefits through November 3, 2024. There is no union representative and there are no bumping rights.”
Ohio-based Big Lots filed for bankruptcy earlier this month and has plans to unload its holdings to Nexus Capital Management LP, conditional upon no better offers for the company’s total assets being tendered.
It is doubtful that Nexus will undo the plan to close out the Apple Valley Distribution Center, as 240 stores outside of California and 75 stores in California are being targeted for closure. That includes one in San Bernardino County, that being the one located in Ontario.
Between January 1 and March 31, Big Lots nationwide lost $205 million.