Distributor Ingram Micro will lay off 150 people at its headquarters and
distribution centers, but says it is working to make sure that solution
providers don’t experience any service disruptions as a result.
The 150 make up half of Ingram Micro’s layoff of 300 employees in North
America, announced a day ahead of the company’s scheduled earnings
announcement. Ingram Micro employs about 15,000 people worldwide, and the
announced cuts this week represented about 8 percent of its North American work
force.
"As you’d expect, a number of these associates are being asked to stay on
board for a period of time while the company makes the necessary transitions to
ensure business continues to run smoothly and there are no service disruptions
to customers [vendors and VARs]," says Keith Bradley, Ingram Micro’s president
of North America. "Communications are happening now within the
company. Outreach is also under way to Ingram Micro customers as
well."
In addition to the 150 at the headquarters and distribution centers, known as
"National Logistics" centers within Ingram Micro, the company will
cut 100 from its Buffalo, N.Y.,
location and 50 in Canada.
Carol Kurimsky, vice president of marketing at Ingram Micro, was among the
casualties of the announced cuts.
Ingram Micro says the announced cuts are part of the company’s so-called
optimization plan, first mentioned in December 2008. This is the first
action taken to implement that plan.
Ingram Micro has said that the majority of actions within its optimization plan
are related to "internal" measures rather than staff cuts, including
things such as cutting the travel budget.
"Right now we’re facing a marketplace lined with many uncertainties,"
Bradley says. "The desire to postpone spending is understandable, but not
sustainable. Businesses need IT in order to grow and thrive, and we expect
demand to return to the IT industry—it’s just a matter of when, not if.”