Pier 1 DuPont distribution site set to close; layoffs start June 1, state filing says
After surviving the first round of Pier 1 store and labor reductions earlier this year, it appears that a Pierce County warehouse distribution site is now going away.
According to the state Employment Security Department’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification list, Pier 1 Imports warehouse site in DuPont is slated to close, with layoffs starting June 1 affecting 49 workers.
In January, Jennifer Engstrand Reeder, director of communications for Pier 1, told The News Tribune there were no plans to close the DuPont site.
Reeder did not respond to request for comment Monday.
In February, the retailer started Chapter 11 proceedings and has been pursuing a sale of the company.
Most of the region’s Pier 1 stores already were slated to close this month (April), and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic swept through Washington state, and non-essential businesses were shut down to slow the spread of the disease.
The retailer announced March 22 that it was temporarily shutting down all of its stores nationwide in response to the pandemic. The company is still maintaining its online store.
Pier 1 has furloughed about 65 percent of its home office workers and some store and distribution associates as well as implemented pay reductions.
In a statement issued April 14, the company stated that “in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the company’s Chapter 11 process, Pier 1 has extended its previously announced furloughs for certain home office, store and distribution associates until further notice.”
Pier 1 signed a 15-year lease for the DuPont site in 2005, which opened as the retailer’s second West Coast distribution site in 2006. The other was in Ontario, California.
