Housing downturn hits distributors
Industrial Distribution staff -- Industrial Distribution, 12/5/2007 7:11:00 AM
Two building materials distributors and the world’s largest home improvement retailer are cutting costs in the face of the ongoing slump in the residential construction market.Lumber distributor 84 Lumber is cutting another 40 jobs at its Eighty Four, Pa., headquarters, about half of whom will be offered other positions, the Home Channel News Web site reported (registration required).
The company laid off 26 headquarters employees last June; including the most recent cuts, the head count there has dropped from roughly 800 workers to about 650.
Building materials distributor BlueLinx Holdings Inc. is also making changes at its headquarters in Atlanta, consolidating the operations in that building with a sales office.
BlueLinx is also looking to sell off its remaining inventory of underperforming products it plans to discontinue and will not pay dividends to its shareholders after the third-quarter payout Dec. 28.
“The company is taking these prudent steps as part of our overall effort to appropriately adjust our business to the prolonged downturn in the housing market,” CEO Stephen Macadam said. “Our decision to consolidate the Atlanta campus was based on excess capacity and projected cost savings. The decline in headcount over the past 18 months has provided the opportunity to comfortably consolidate our physical space, an action that we estimate will save us between $1 million and $1.5 million in operating expenses in 2008."
And the Home Depot is closing three call centers and eliminating the 950 workers they employ, the Reuters news service reported.
The call centers help customers of the home improvement retailer’s home services business facilitate installations of doors and other products. The three centers are in Tampa, Fla., Chicago and Dallas.
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