COVID-19 Accelerates Closure of Russell Stover Plant

Chocolates manufacturer Russell Stover is moving the planned closure date of its production plant and retail store in Montrose, CO from March 2021 to this July as a result of the ongoing coronavirus crisis, according to a recent Worker Readjustment and Retaining Notification (WARN) Act letter sent by the company to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. 

“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was impossible to anticipate or foresee in January of 2020, we have been forced to accelerate the Montrose and retail store closure earlier than initially planned,” Russell Stover Vice President of Human Resources Jim Kissinger wrote in the letter. “The closing of these facilities will be permanent.”

Layoffs of 215 workers at the sites will start on or by July 24, and a second phase of separations will reach completion on or around August 28. The company said the manufacturing plant and retail location will remain in operation until the layoffs are completed. 

Workers at the plant are represented by the International Bakery Confectionery Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union Local #26. 

Russell Stover announced plans this January to cut 400 jobs from its payrolls at the Montrose plant and several distribution and fulfillment centers across its network. The company said it intends to shutter its distribution and fulfillment facilities in Cookeville, TN and Butler, MO and “some select low-traffic stores” this year. 

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