New Jersey-based trucking company Jevic Transportation suddenly went out of business Monday, and shut down its 6 Pioneer Drive terminal in North Oxford, leaving about 88 employees without work.
In a Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act notice, Jevic President and CEO David H. Gorman said, âThe company was seeking financing or other alternatives that would have enabled it to continue operations. However, it has been unsuccessful due in part to the unforeseeable tightening of the credit markets.â
Jevic was a subsidiary of publicly-traded SCS Transportation Inc. in 2006 when it was bought and taken private by Florida leveraged buyout firm Sun Capital Partners. At the time, Gorman said, âToday, I am proud and heartened to say, ‘Jevic is a privately-held company focused solely on the needs of our customersâ¦â
Today, the company’s phone number leads only to a message explaining that Jevic had âdiscontinued operations,â as of Monday, and that it would make its last run of outstanding deliveries before shutting down completely.
Tuesday, state labor officials were scrambling to find out more about the situation. A labor official in New Jersey called Ken Messina, Massachusetts statewide rapid response manager, and said, âHey Ken, something’s going to be happening up there in Massachusetts, too,â Messina said.
âWe heard word of it today,â Messina said Tuesday. âWe heard 150 (employees) were affected and that they were laid off right away. We’ve tried to put some calls in to the company already.â
Kinzie Weimer, president of Boylston-based Jan-Pro Cleaning Systems of Western Massachusetts, has tried to call Jevic as well, but like Messina, hasn’t had any luck. When a Jan-Pro cleaning crew showed up to clean the North Oxford Jevic facility Monday, âbasically, they had packed up and left, headed for the hills,â Weimer said.
Weimer said Jevic owes Jan-Pro âa couple thousand dollars.â
âWhat I think is kind of irresponsible is not the sudden closing, but to close up shop, leave a voice mail and head for the hills without telling anybody anything. I’m sure there are other vendors who supply Jevic all sitting there trying to figure out what’s going on. Hopefully, as the days go on, there will be some sense of order brought to this.â
Joseph M. Zeneski, Oxford town manager, said the Jevic facility is âa well-done, well-built facility,â that shouldn’t have much trouble attracting tenants.
According to county land records, the property is owned by Caleast Nat LLC, which bought the property from Jevic in March 2007 for $5.9 million.
