Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from GXO.
Dive Brief:
- GXO Logistics said it will lay off 144 workers at a facility in Wisconsin, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice dated July 11.
- The company said in a statement to Supply Chain Dive that its customer made a strategic business decision to relocate its warehousing operations to northern Kentucky later this year to be in close proximity to its manufacturing.
- The entire Racine County facility, south of Milwaukee, will be closed, and the permanent separations involve workers such as clerks, PIT operators and managers. Nearly all of the layoffs will occur Sept. 10, and five will happen Sept. 30.
Dive Insight:
While GXO has cited automation, e-commerce and outsourcing as factors helping drive its growth, market forces continue to disrupt the workforce. Gopuff said it’s laying off 1,500 workers and shuttering warehouses amid slowing demand. FedEx Supply Chain said earlier this year that it’s closing four facilities — affecting more than 450 employees — due to expiring customer contracts. And a CEVA Logistics representative wrote that a layoff involving 87 workers would occur in November 2021 due to “Raytheon moving the work to XPO Logistics.”
GXO Logistics, a spinoff of XPO Logistics, is less than a year old after XPO separated its contract logistics business from its LTL and other freight transportation services. A brokerage spinoff called RXO is slated to launch in Q4.
So far, the GXO spinoff has drawn considerable optimism. At its Q3 2021 earnings call, GXO executives projected double-digit revenue growth for 2022. In May, CEO Malcolm Wilson said in a statement that the business in Q1 saw “solid volumes and growth in all of our verticals. Looking to the remainder of 2022 and beyond, we continue to benefit from multi-year revenue visibility, exceptional growth opportunities with new and existing customers, and a predictable, contractual business model.”
GXO said it will work with employees to transfer them to other GXO locations in the region where possible, including a new facility expected to open this year.
