Morgan Olson to lay off 139 in Pittsylvania County

The van manufacturer Morgan Olson this week announced its second round of job cuts in less than a year at its Pittsylvania County facility.

The company will lay off 139 people there, beginning Sept. 27 and finishing by the end of the year. Affected employees were notified Monday.

The company makes walk-in step vans, the boxy trucks commonly used by package delivery companies, bakeries, laundries and other industries.

“At this time, this mass layoff is expected to be permanent, but hope with improved business improvement we can engage in rehiring,” Morgan Olson’s vice president of human resources, Niki Reiter, wrote in a letter dated Monday to Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors Chairman Darrell Dalton.

Morgan Olson spokesperson Kenn Klein said in a statement that the layoffs are due to “current economic conditions and forecasts.”

“Despite this necessary workforce reduction, the company emphasizes that the Virginia facility, along with all of Morgan Olson’s other North American locations, will continue to operate to satisfy market demand,” Klein said.

The company saw 435 layoffs at its Ringgold location and 290 at its Loudon, Tennessee, site that were effective in December, according to federally required notices of mass layoffs that were posted on Virginia and Tennessee state government websites ahead of time.

It was unclear Wednesday how many employees will remain at the Pittsylvania facility after the upcoming layoffs.

Morgan Olson is owned by the privately held commercial truck manufacturer J.B. Poindexter & Co. Its clients include the well-known brands UPS, FedEx, Aramark and Flowers Foods. The company also has a facility in Michigan.

Morgan Olson workers in Pittsylvania County are not represented by a union.

In 2019, officials announced that Morgan Olson would bring 703 jobs to Pittsylvania County with a new assembly plant at the county’s Cane Creek Centre Industrial Park, setting up shop in a 925,000-square-foot former IKEA facility that closed earlier that year.

In October 2022, officials announced that Morgan Olson had been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Port of Virginia for worker retention, according to the Danville Register & Bee . It’s unclear whether the company has had to repay any of that grant because of the mass layoffs; a port authority spokesperson could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Danville Community College’s vice president of workforce services, Jessica Dalton, said in a statement Wednesday that the college “stands ready to assist displaced employees with enhancing their existing skills or achieving a new industry-recognized credential.”

“We have many in-demand career pathways to choose from and our Workforce Career Coaches are prepared to answer questions and support prospective students through the enrollment process,” Dalton said.

The college asks people seeking information on the school’s workforce programs to contact Chad Younger at chadrick.younger@danville.edu or 434-797-8573.

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