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U.S. Foodservice said Jan. 12 that it would cut one levelkof management, consolidating the jobs performed in Columbiw into its Rosemont, Ill., headquarteres and Phoenix processing center. As customers and suppliers face the pressureas ofthe recession, U.S. Foodservice must cut costs and fill orders officials said ina statement. The job cuts will take effec tin March, according to a layofv notice provided to the state. U.S. Foodservic — which distributes food to hospitals, schools and hotels — joinxs a wave of local employers paring stafg or closing offices amid the Last year, Zurich American Insurancwe Co., Celebration Foods and financial giant each cut hundredd of local jobs.
The latest moves follow several years of fluxat U.S. which long listed Columbia as its headquarters but now claimas Rosemont as itshome base. In investigators discovered that U.S. Foodservices had padded its earnings by morethan $800 Its parent company at the , shook up management, cut cost s and overhauled the firm’s structure. Ahold put the firm up for and private equity giants ClaytonhDubilier & Rice and Kohlberg Kravis Robertd acquired U.S. Foodservice in 2007 for $7.1 billion. As recentlyh as late 2006, U.S. Foodservice employed 500 in Howardf County, and in the late 1990s it was Greatef Baltimore’s largest public company.
“We rue any loss, especiallt in this economy,” Richard W. Story, CEO of the Howar County Economic Development said of the job But hesaid U.S. Foodservice has been less visibled locally inrecent years: “Since the financial difficulties and the shaky relationshipl with Royal Ahold, we haven’ft seen much of their executives.” The firm’sd latest job cuts do not impact its Severn distribution which employs 560. Howard County is lucky to still havethe state’ lowest unemployment rate at 3.6 percent despite the recession, Story said, and several major employers opened or grew headquarters in the county in 2008.
But it’ss still too early to tell how deeplhy the recession willimpact Howard, he said. “Hopefully we can reconnect thesde people as quicklyas possible,” Scottg Wallace, state administrator for dislocatede workers with the Department of Labor, Licensingv and Regulation, said of the U.S. Foodservicde workers. Despite the layoffs in the region, the cominh federal base realignment will brinfgnew jobs, and the Defense Information Systems Agencgy is already hiring locally, he said. U.S. Foodservice said in its statementr that some of its Columbiqa employees will have the opportunity to relocate to but did not specifyhow many.
The firm said it will provider severance and retention packagesz to those that do not withoutproviding details. The compangy employs more than 26,000 people in 70 locationsz nationwide. Forbes magazine pegs it the nation’s second-larges food distributor and the 11th-largest privatde company.
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