Housing slump hits NJ housing distributor

From the Record:

Flooring company lays off 120

About 120 people were fired this week from Wayne-based Hoboken Wood Flooring LLC, the country’s largest independent distributor of hard-surface flooring, as the company takes steps to close after 77 years.

Termination notices sent out to the Wayne headquarters and employees at its main warehouse in Pompton Plains on Monday and again on Tuesday told employees that the offices would be permanently shuttered and the company would “begin to wind down the business immediately.” The notices gave the workers either 30 or 60 days’ notice, according to an employee.

Prior to the layoffs on Monday, there were about 130 administrative and warehouse employees in the Wayne office at 70 Demarest Ave. and about 120 in Pompton Plains at 100 Alexander Ave., said the employee. In August 2006, Hoboken Wood Flooring began laying off some of the 750 employees working at its facilities on the East Coast. About 250 remain, the employee said.
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Grossman said the company had not filed for bankruptcy and would not comment on whether the company was planning to do so. He would not comment on what is causing the company to close. The distressed housing sector has taken its toll on related businesses such as flooring. Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in August by the most in six years, according to the closely watched S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index.

“The housing industry definitely impacts our business,” Deb Hawkinson, executive director of the Washington-based Hardwood Federation, said Wednesday.