Dive Brief:
- United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) plans to lay off 121 employees who work at its office in Lincoln, Rhode Island, in January, according to a WARN notice.
- The layoffs come as UNFI moves ahead with a drive “to enhance the service we provide to our retailer and supplier partners,” a company spokesman wrote in an email. UNFI also plans to relocate its corporate headquarters from Lincoln to Providence, Rhode Island, the spokesman said.
- UNFI has been taking steps to cut expenses and improve efficiency as part of a multi-year effort to improve its financial performance.
Dive Insight:
In connection with the effort to streamline its operations, UNFI also recently transferred roles involved with high-volume and transactional billing, invoicing, payroll and contact center operations to an outside business services and technology services company, according to the spokesperson, adding that UNFI shared its intention to make these adjustments with workers in early October.
“We expect this change will allow us to serve our partners more efficiently and effectively over time,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson declined to indicate if UNFI offered workers affected by the job cuts other opportunities to remain with the company, but said the company offered all impacted employees severance.
The job cuts come as UNFI moves ahead with plans to centralize its headquarters in a new facility at 15 Park Row West in downtown Providence next summer. UNFI is a “fully remote organization,” and all workers from its current office in Lincoln as well as another one it currently operates in Providence will be able to use the new office, the spokesperson said.
UNFI disclosed its plans to let go of the 121 workers affected by the office consolidation in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice filed on Nov. 21 with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. The layoffs are effective Jan. 24, 2025, although some of the affected workers will remain employed through late June, The Providence Journal reported. Most of the workers who are set to lose their jobs are remote, and only about 50 of them live and work in Rhode Island, according to the news outlet.
UNFI has taken steps to shore up its finances after it shocked investors in early 2023 with an unexpected plunge in profitability related to forecasting challenges. The measures have included closing distribution centers, putting property up for sale and upgrading warehouse technology, CEO Sandy Douglas told investors during an Oct. 1 earnings call.
The company posted a net loss during its most recent quarter that was down by about half compared with the net loss it incurred during the same period a year ago, while its retail sales moved up. UNFI plans to release its next quarterly earnings on Tuesday.
Catherine Douglas Moran contributed reporting.
