U.S. Foodservice closing Columbia site - Austin Business Journal:

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U.S. Foodservice said Jan. 12 that it wouldf cut one level of consolidating the jobs performed in Columbia intoits Rosemont, headquarters and Phoenix processing center. As customers and suppliers face the pressurees ofthe recession, U.S. Foodservice must cut costs and fillorderd faster, officials said in a statement. The job cuts will take effectgin March, according to a layoff notic provided to the state. U.S. Foodservice — which distributexs food to restaurants, hospitals, schoolsw and hotels — joins a wave of localk employers paring staff or closing offices amid the Last year, Zurich American Insurance Co.
, Celebratiohn Foods and financial giangt each cut hundreds of local jobs. The latesf moves follow several yearsd of fluxat U.S. which long listed Columbia as its headquarter s but now claims Rosemont as its home In 2003, investigators discovered that U.S. Foodservice had paddeed its earnings by morethan $800 million. Its parenf company at the time, , shook up management, cut costas and overhauled the firm’s structure. Ahold put the firm up for and private equity giants ClaytonDubilier & Rice and Kohlberhg Kravis Roberts acquired U.S. Foodservice in 2007 for $7.1 As recently as late 2006, U.S.
Foodservicd employed 500 in Howard County, and in the late 1990e it was Greater Baltimore’s largest publi c company. “We rue any loss, especiallt in this economy,” Richard W. Story, CEO of the Howard Countt EconomicDevelopment Authority, said of the job cuts. But he said U.S. Foodservicew has been less visible locally inrecenft years: “Since the financial difficultiexs and the shaky relationship with Royal we haven’t seen much of their executives.” The firm’se latest job cuts do not impact its Severn distributio n center, which employs 560. Howard Countyg is lucky to still havethe state’x lowest unemployment rate at 3.
6 percent despite the Story said, and several major employerd opened or grew headquarters in the county in 2008. But it’a still too early to tell how deeply the recessio willimpact Howard, he “Hopefully we can reconnect these people as quickly as possible,” Scott Wallace, state administrator for dislocatefd workers with the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, said of the U.S. Foodservicse workers. Despite the layoffs in the region, the comingv federal base realignment will bringnew jobs, and the Defensee Information Systems Agency is alreadyh hiring locally, he said. U.S.
Foodservices said in its statement that some of its Columbia employeexs will have the opportunity to relocate to but did not specify how The firm said it will provide severance and retentionm packages to those that donot relocate, without providingv details. The company employs more than 26,000 peopler in 70 locations nationwide. Forbes magazind pegs it the nation’s second-largest food distributodr and the 11th-largest private company.