Aubuchon to close Westminster facility, lay off 31
Aubuchon Hardware CEO William Aubuchon said the company will begin outsourcing distribution by the end of the year.
Westminster-based hardware store chain Aubuchon Hardware will close its Westminster distribution facility by the end of the year, CEO Will Aubuchon said Thursday.
Aubuchon confirmed the closure will result in layoffs for 25 unionized workers and six non-union workers employed at the facility, which opened in 1974. Located at the site of the company’s corporate headquarters on Aubuchon Drive, the distribution facility operations have been scaled back over the last nine months as the company has pivoted to outsourcing distribution to companies based in New York and Maine, Aubuchon said.
The closure is necessary as the company is now focused solely on investing in retail operations, said Aubuchon.
“We’ve been able to test working with some larger distributors in the last nine months and what we’ve learned is this building is very much a bottleneck,” said Aubuchon, CEO of the company founded by his great-grandfather in 1908.
Aubuchon said the hardware store chain is growing through acquisitions, and he’s set his sights on expanding beyond the current footprint of New England and upstate New York. But the Westminster distribution facility can’t house enough products to adequately serve Aubuchon stores. Aubuchon said the facility can hold about 15,000 items, while larger distributors they’ve tested can hold more than 80,000.
The Teamsters Local 170 union representing employees of the facility sent Aubuchon a letter on Thursday, asking Aubuchon to work with members to avert closure of the facility, said Shannon George, principal executive officer for the Worcester-based union that represents about 4,300 people in the region.
George said the union has worked with Aubuchon in recent years, agreeing to concessions to help keep the facility open.
“It’s a shame to see these jobs leave Massachusetts,” George said.
Aubuchon said the company has a longstanding relationship with the Teamsters, and that ceasing distribution marks the end of an era. Aubuchon said employees will receive generous severance packages, but he said the decision is final.
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