Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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  • Cathy Buzzo speaks to Candace Logan about the closure of the Kroger store on Cumberland road Friday. The Kroger store will close March 30. Staff photos by Eric DiNovo

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January 28, 2012

Bluefields losing 164 jobs

By GREG JORDAN Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEFIELD — Workers at a Cumberland Road grocery store and a local manufacturer were told early Friday morning that their places of business would soon be closing.

Kroger company officials announced plans to close Bluefield Beverage in Bluefield, Va., and the Kroger store on Cumberland Road in Bluefield. The closures will impact a total of 164 people. Bluefield Beverage is scheduled for closure on April 27, and the Kroger in Bluefield will close on March 30.

Approximately 110 associates work at the bottling plant, Carl York, public affairs manager for Kroger Mid-Atlantic, said during a stop at the Bluefield Daily Telegraph.

“Kroger is working with each individual employee to find a job for them either within Kroger or through a job placement service,” York said. “And if they can’t find a job, they will get a severance.”

The Kroger in Bluefield has 54 employees, York said. Under contract with Local 400 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, the 28 full-time employees may move to other stores, depending on their seniority. The 26 part-time employees will be laid off.

“Employees at both the store and the bottling plant were informed at 8 a.m. today,” York said Friday. “The district manager was there with a team and told them in person as a group. Again, we have a great group of employees there, and we met with them and let them know what the situation was.”

York said that Kroger was closing the store and bottling plant because both had been losing money.

“Well, both Bluefield Beverage and the store had been unprofitable for a long time now,” York said. “It’s been a gradual thing. We’ve been trying to get them profitable, and we just determined that the right thing to do was to close them. The underlying issue is that we have to control cost and be profitable in order to offer low prices and stay competitive in our stores.”

Kroger leases the Cumberland Road store, so the building will go back to the landlord, York said. The company has owned Bluefield Beverage since 1983. Products such as the Big K soda brand and Kroger Water were bottled at the plant. Kroger will look to either lease or sell the facility.

When asked about the Kroger stores in Bluewell and Princeton, York said both stores were doing well and that there were no plans to close them.

Kroger will continue to stay involved in the community, he added.

“We’re not going to discontinue the things we do in this area. We will continue to support Feeding America — the Southwest Virginia food bank — and the Mountaineer Food Bank in Mercer County,” he said.

The company will also continue working with the United Way, the Children’s Miracle Network, Special Olympics and the American Cancer Society, he said.

“We will continue to do those things throughout our whole division and they will continue to help the folks in this area,” York said.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

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