JR Cigar to cut 135 jobs in N.C.

Source from:  Triangle Business Journal 09/10/2015

The New Jersey-based parent company behind JR Cigar - the tobacco warehouse whose signs overlook I-40 - has notified North Carolina officials that it will be cutting 135 positions in the state as part of a refocusing effort. According to the filing, 54 of those cuts are in Burlington, the remaining 81 are at the store in Selma.

The company says the reductions are part of a change in strategy as JR Cigar shifts its focus solely to tobacco products and e-cigarette offerings - not clothing, books, housewares and other retail items.

"We've had to make a business decision," says MC Management spokesman Rob Maneson. All the impacted jobs are directly associated with that general retail business.

While the cuts do represent the bulk of the workforce in those locations, neither store is closing, he says. Each location will have about 20 employees, with the call center and distribution warehouse remaining at the company-owned building in Burlington. In Selma, where the firm leases space for the store, the company has decided to downsize its facility, moving from about 80,000 square feet to 13,000 square feet.

Maneson says the cuts are effective Dec. 1, though some employees were notified as early as June that their jobs would be terminated.

The news comes nearly one year after the company announced it would be closing a Statesville-based store, impacting 77 workers.

JR Cigar has three locations in North Carolina, including a new location in Mooresville. The Mooresville store, unlike locations in Selma and Burlington, houses a craft beer bar in addition to value-priced cigars. Maneson says the plan is to follow that same model in Selma and Burlington.

The layoffs, announced via separate filings, are the second and third mass layoff announcements in the state this month, after Michael Waltrip Racing Management Company notified officials Sept. 1 of 217 job cuts in Cornelius.

So far in 2015, 35 layoff notifications have been sent to the state, impacting 4,1207 employees. Enditem