Bradington-Young Lays off 54

November 6, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Leather Upholstery on November 2008 Leather upholstery manufacturer Bradington-Young, Cherryville, N.C., announced Thursday it lay off 54 employees in operations and administration at its plants in Cherryville and Hickory, N.C. The company is a division of Hooker Furniture Corp., Martinsville, Va.

The reduction represents about 15 percent of Bradington-Young’s workforce, and comes in reaction to the negative sales impact of the prolonged economic slump in the furniture industry on the company’s leather upholstered seating and reclining furniture from, according to Alan Cole, president and chief executive officer of Hooker’s Upholstery Division. The layoff will affect 31 employees in the Cherryville operations, and 23 employees in the Hickory plant.

“The extreme difficulty of the current economic environment has made it necessary to scale down our employment levels to match sales levels,” Cole said in an announcement. “The marketplace difficulties have taken a toll on our ability to staff at the levels we have historically needed.”

The affected employees will be offered severance packages based on their years of service. In addition, Bradington-Young is coordinating with the North Carolina Employment Security Commission to assist employees with placement assistance and will be applying to the Department of Labor for Trade Act Assistance.

The layoff does not affect employees at Hooker’s wood furniture operations, based in Martinsville, Va.; or at upholstered chair specialist Sam Moore in Bedford, Va.