More than 800 Connecticut Stop and Shop employees may lose their jobs following the company’s announcement this week that it plans to close its North Haven distribution facility by midyear.
Stop and Shop decided to close the facility, which employs 191 New Haven residents, because it was no longer economically advantageous to operate the plant in the New Haven area, company spokesman Robert Keane said.
“It’s too limited, technologically and physically and geographically, in order to best serve our stores,” he said.
The current operations of the North Haven facility, built in the 1960s, will be relocated to a new, larger facility in Freetown, Mass., Keane said. He said a compensation package for current employees has not been finalized yet, but it is possible that some employees may be relocated to Freetown since Stop and Shop will be expanding its hiring there.
Affected employees will be offered job retraining and placement services, Stop and Shop CEO Marc Smith said in a statement issued Monday. According to the statement, the North Haven property will be transferred to Preferred Real Estate Investments of Pennsylvania.
Stop and Shop Supermarket Co., based in Quincy, Mass., currently operates 376 stores in the New England area.
— David Shieh