generic Massive layoffs at Southern Motion, Fusion expected
Jun. 21—PONTOTOC — Significant layoffs are expected to be announced at one of the largest furniture manufacturing companies in Mississippi this week.
Southern Motion and Fusion Furniture employ about 2,000 workers between them, and multiple sources say several hundred could be affected.
Southern Motion acquired Fusion Furniture for an undisclosed sum in July 2018. Gainline Capital Partners, a private equity firm, acquired Southern Motion in June 2017 for an undisclosed amount and forged the deal between Southern Motion and Fusion.
The layoffs come after a call for voluntary layoffs. In an email to employees on June 13 obtained by the Daily Journal, Dave Hodorff, the senior vice president of operations, said, "We have determined a reduced workforce may help us return to a 36 or 40-hour weekly schedule. Before any layoff decisions are made we are actively seeking anyone who may wish to volunteer for layoff status."
Hodorff said in the email that the company is unable to determine the length of the layoff and "cannot guarantee everyone who requests voluntary layoff will receive one."
Employees were asked to sign up with their supervisors by the end of their shifts on June 15. Those selected for the voluntary layoff were to be informed this week.
The company already had prepared to not work the week of June 27. Typically the week before the annual July 4 shutdown week is used to do a fiscal year-end inventory, and Hodorff told employees the inventory count plus continued supply chain issues led to the decision.
As for the layoffs, the company has provided few details.
Company president and CEO Mark Weber, in an email to the Daily Journal on Monday, confirmed the voluntary layoffs.
"Due to the recent slowdown in furniture demand, we have entertained requests for voluntary layoffs," he said. "No other communications have been made at this time."
He could not be reached for further comments Tuesday.
Southern Motion was founded in 1996 by Guy Lipscomb and Larry Todd and employs 1,500 people in five facilities in Pontotoc and Baldwyn. Fusion, founded in 2009 by Bo and Alison Robbins, employs 500 at four facilities in Pontotoc County.
