VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Outdoor power equipment manufacturer STIHL has furloughed about 30 percent of its Virginia Beach workforce, a company spokesperson confirmed to 13News Now Thursday.
Some employees told 13News Now they feel blindsided after having to leave their jobs in the middle of a workday on Wednesday.
One person said that a mass text message sent just before noon Wednesday was all the heads up workers recieved as supervisors went through the facility telling people to leave: "Due to temporary operational adjustments, all STIHL Inc. Virginia Beach locations will close at noon today and resume operations on Monday."
A spokesperson for the Virginia Beach Police Department confirmed that officers were present at the facility when employees were sent home. A STIHL spokesperson said police were called to direct traffic and that there was no security incident.
Employees later recieved an email from STIHL that included a letter from the company's president and CEO, Chris Keffer, and an FAQ document about the furloughs.
Keffer explained that market slowdowns affecting the outdoor power equipment industry were the reason for the furloughs. Less demand for STIHL products resulted in a "major excess of inventory," he said, and then he outlined steps the company had taken to address the issue.
"While we have pulled every lever to improve our situation, the demand for outdoor power equipment remains low, and we still have excess inventory across all our distribution channels – in our warehouses, at our branches and distributors and at our dealers," he said in the letter.
Keffer said that furloughs for several areas of the company's manufacturing workforce would last four to 16 weeks, "depending on inventory levels and market demand." In the meantime, the company has to make adjustments to operations due to the workforce changes and Keffer said STIHL Inc. and the Virginia Beach campus would be closed until Monday so those adjustments could be made.
"We are committed to supporting our affected employees during this time and will work tirelessly to return all employees to normal work status as soon as possible," a company spokesperson said in an email to 13News Now on Thursday.
City leaders in Virginia Beach were notified of the furloughs Wednesday, according to a statement from City Manager Patrick Duhaney. Another source with the city said leaders were told the furloughs would impact 1,200 workers.
According to the company's website, STIHL employs over 3,000 employees nationwide with more than 2,700 of them based at the Virginia Beach factory, which was built in 1974.
"Stihl has been a valued member of Virginia Beach’s corporate community for almost 50 years, and it is our sincere hope that this relationship, and the company’s presence, will continue to thrive in our community," Duhaney said in the statement.
He also said "it would be premature to discuss the impacts to the Economic Development Investment Program grant that the company was awarded last year. Since the grant has performance-based measures, it’s unclear what, if any impact the temporary furloughs may have on those metrics."