A Mississippi-based company that had grown to become one of the country’s top furniture manufacturers has laid off nearly its entire workforce.
According to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, around 2,700 workers, the most of whom live in northeast Mississippi, were laid off on Monday.
United Furniture Industries sent an email and text message to employees late Monday night instructing them not to report to work on Tuesday, just days before the Thanksgiving holiday.
A second email informed employees that their “layoff from the company is expected to be permanent, and all benefits will be terminated immediately without provision of COBRA,” referring to a federal law that allows people who lose their jobs to keep their employer-sponsored health insurance coverage under certain conditions.
A request for comment was not immediately responded to by the company’s communications team.
United Furniture Industries, situated in Okolona, Mississippi, manufactures furniture under its own name as well as the Lane Home Furnishings brand, which it purchased from Heritage Home Group LLC in 2017 for an undisclosed fee. Lane was formed in Virginia in 1912 and amalgamated with Action Industries of Tupelo in 1972.
According to Furniture Today, United removed its chief executive, chief financial officer, and executive vice president of sales in June. It then selected Todd Evans, the former president of Alabama-based Standard Furniture, as its new CEO.
United also had six factories in North Carolina and one in California, in addition to the eight in Mississippi.
