The previously announced closing of the QVC order-fulfillment center in West Hempfield Township will cost 1,124 employees their jobs, beginning July 1, the company’s owner has disclosed.
In a recent filing with the state Department of Labor & Industry, Qurate Retail Group said the layoffs will run until 2021.
The fulfillment center at 1000 Stony Battery Road, near the Hempfield recCenter, opened in September 1987. After several expansions over the years, the facility now encompasses more than 700,000 square feet.
Qurate said in October that the local facility would close, along with fulfillment centers in Roanoke, Virginia, and Greeneville, Tennessee, to be replaced by a new facility in Bethlehem. At that time, Qurate declined to specify the impact on the facility here.
Qurate says the new leased facility, measuring 1.7 million square feet, will reduce delivery times by two days, increase package consolidation and reduce shipping costs.
The company was required to file the notice with the department under the federal Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification Act. The act requires employees be given at least 60 days notice of plant closings and mass layoffs.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the 1,124-employee figure represented the entire workforce or whether some local employees are transferring to the Bethlehem facility.
The fate of the 39.8-acre property here, zoned industrial and assessed at $22.9 million, remains to be determined. Qurate tried unsuccessfully to sell it at auction late last year, according to local Realtors.
Source: Lancaster Online