Keene, New Hampshire, U.S.A.-based wholesale grocery supplier C&S Wholesale Grocers announced it is planning to close one of its distribution centers in Baldwin, Florida, U.S.A., resulting in 490 job cuts, per Grocery Dive.
The closure comes after C&S was set to acquire around 600 stores if the merger between grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons came to pass. After the merger failed, C&S said it would lay off at least 76 employees at sites in Hawaii, Vermont, New Jersey, Texas, and New York.
Then, C&S sued Kroger in mid-March, alleging that the grocery chain owes it a USD 125 million (EUR 110 million) termination fee over the failed merger. However, in a recent legal filing, Kroger said C&S is not entitled to the termination fee because it breached its contract with the grocer during the battle with regulators over the merger.
The filing claims that C&S disparaged the divestiture deal to regulators, secretly talked with Albertsons employees about the merger plan, failed to make disclosures to Kroger, and committed other faults throughout the process.
C&S is just one of several grocery retailers that have laid off employees this year.
Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A.-based Southeastern Grocers laid off an undisclosed …
