Local furniture maker Mayline-Safco, which announced last year plans to move to Iowa, has said it expects to begin laying off more than 100 Sheboygan workers beginning in September.
“Safco Products Co. has provided formal notice of a planned workforce reduction at three Sheboygan locations,” the state Department of Workforce Development announced in a layoff warning emailed to local media late Monday afternoon.
Locations impacted included Mayline-Safco facilities along North Commerce Street, nearby Pennsylvania Avenue and Tower Drive, which the company said it plans to permanently close.
The move is expected to impact 127 workers, with layoffs ranging from about Sept. 4 to Nov. 16, according to the department, which said it’s working with the Bay Area Workforce Development Board to provide services to affected employees.
“The only silver lining is that there’s many companies lining up to hire those people because we still have over 3,000 jobs in Sheboygan,” Mayor Mike Vandersteen said Monday.
Safco Products bought Sheboygan's Mayline Company in 2016. The merger put the newly renamed Mayline-Safco under the ownership of Minneapolis-area firm Liberty Diversified International, which had previously owned Safco Products.
The company confirmed in December it was shifting manufacturing operations to northwest Iowa while moving office jobs to Minnesota. At the time, the move was reported to affect as many as 185 local jobs.
A Liberty Diversified spokesperson wasn't immediately available for comment late Monday afternoon.
An after-hours media contact with the state workforce development agency didn’t answer a phone call late Monday afternoon, and a voicemail inbox for the contact was full.