BROOKS BROS CUtS JOBS
More than 400 layoffs coming to Haverhill plant
The classic clothing purveyor Brooks Brothers put the state on notice that over 400 jobs at its Southwick manufacturing plant in Haverhill are slated for layoffs.
The announcement comes as the company prepares to shutter two other East Coast factories, according to reports.
Brooks Brothers submitted a notice that it will lay off 413 employees at the Haverhill facility with an effective date of July 20, less than two months after the plant switched production from suits and ties to masks and gowns in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini told the Herald Tuesday the city is going to do “everything we can” to prevent job losses as Brooks Brothers navigates its own financial troubles.
“If they shipped the jobs overseas, that would be tragic after we gave them tax breaks,” Fiorentini said. “We’re going to work with them.”
Brooks Brothers has approximately $600 million in debt, according to a report by Bloomberg and was searching for a buyer long before the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
The company has not formally filed for bankruptcy, but two other production facilities are headed toward closure.
The company last week announced it will shut down its shirt factory in North Carolina also on July 20, eliminating 146 jobs, according to a report by the Raleigh News & Observer. Another plant on Long Island, which manufactures ties, is also slated to close in August. That closure would eliminate 136 jobs, the Long Island City Post reported Tuesday.
Fiorentini said he has fielded calls about potential buyers interested in Southwick, including a few inquiries Tuesday.
“We’re going to explore those options, see if they’re real,” the mayor said.
Representatives for Brooks Brothers and the union representing Southwick workers did not respond to inquiries.
Southwick, in operation since 1929, moved from Lawrence to its current facility on Computer Drive in Haverhill in 2009, and is owned by Brooks Brothers’ parent company, Retail Brand Alliance.
The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance said the closure is a sign of the difficult business environment in the state amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“It should not come as a surprise that Massachusetts small businesses are losing their will to operate,” said Paul D. Craney, spokesman for the organization in a statement. “What was once a point of pride for Massachusetts, ‘made in Massachusetts’ is about to become an oldfashioned saying.”
Fiorentini disagreed, saying the facility’s troubles are “absolutely, positively not” related to Massachusetts’ response to the virus.
“I think it would be a hit to the United States,” Fiorentini said, “where we’ve talked forever about bringing manufacturing jobs back.”