Detroit food distributor shuttering all operations and laying off 1,500

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Detroit food distributor shuttering all operations and laying off 1,500

A nationwide distributor of beef, poultry, pork, and dozens of other food products headquartered in Detroit is shutting down all of its operations and facilities across several states, resulting in 1,500 layoffs.

Harvest Sherwood Food Distributors, located in northwest Detroit, has so far issued WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) notices in Michigan, Florida, and Oregon, where it has operations, the Free Press has learned.

Its Detroit operations at 12499 Evergreen Road will shut down and 255 people will be permanently laid off, the company stated in the WARN notice.

“All employees are expected to remain on payroll and benefits through April 21, 2025,” the notice stated.

Calls to the company’s Detroit office were referred to a spokesperson.

Harvest Sherwood employs about 1,500 people across several states with its headquarters in Detroit. All operations are ceasing, a Harvest Sherwood spokesperson confirmed to the Free Press. Its employees were notified by mail or email about the closure. The company plans to focus on liquidating assets, closing facilities, and settling financial obligations, according to the spokesperson.

The Detroit company with a longtime, locally owned history distributes food products, from meats to bakery items to processed meats and other food service items, according to its website. Nationwide, it services more than 6,000 customers, according to its website, which includes retailers, wholesalers, institutional and food service accounts, and cruise lines.

Sherwood Food Distributors got its start in 1969 as Regal Packing Co. by Alex Karp and Earl Ishbia. In 1987, the company name changed to Sherwood Food Distributors. Over the decades, the company grew to be a large nationwide distributor in the meat and food industry. Less than 10 years ago, the company merged with Harvest Food Distributors, a family-run food distributor based at the time in California. Harvest Sherwood, the parent company, was formed by the 2017 merger and Detroit is now headquarters for the overall company.

More: Michigan House passes plan to close ‘revolving door’ of lawmakers, lobbyists

On its website, the company lists distribution center locations in Detroit, Atlanta, Cleveland, Miami, and Orlando.

The food distribution company ships over 20 million pounds of food products weekly on a fleet of over 250 trucks, its website says, through its network of distribution centers. Its warehouses stock more than 50 categories of food.

At a Harvest Sherwood Food distributor in Portland, Oregon, operating as Western Boxed Meat, 96 people are being laid off, according to an OregonLive.com report. That distributor supplied an area that included Alaska, California, Idaho, Washington, and Guam, according to its website.

The Portland facility is permanently closing April 21 with workers paid until then, according to an Oregon WARN notice.

Harvest Sherwood cited, per

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, “rising costs and a diminished market for its products” for the shuttering of all locations. In addition, the company was “seeking funding to avoid or postpone the shutdown but that continuing operations proved unworkable financially,”

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

wrote.

Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: *****@*****.tld. Follow @SusanMariecooks on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Detroit #food #distributor #shuttering #operations #laying

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up