The Spiegel Group will close a teleservices center and a distribution facility by the end of the year, the Downers Grove, IL, company said yesterday.
Spiegel's teleservices division, which handles customer sales and service calls for The Spiegel Group merchant companies, will close a customer contact center in Rapid City, SD, that employs about 240 workers. It is expected to close at the end of December.
The company's network of customer contact centers in Hampton, VA, as well as the Canadian locations of Saint John, New Brunswick, and Sydney, Nova Scotia, will handle customer sales and service for the Group's merchant companies — Eddie Bauer, Newport News and Spiegel Catalog.
In consolidating its order fulfillment operations, a distribution center that employs about 400 associates and supports the company's Newport News division will be shut down in Newport News, VA. It also is set to close at the end of December.
In January, the company will begin processing and shipping orders for its merchant divisions through Distribution Fulfillment Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Spiegel that now serves Eddie Bauer and Spiegel Catalog.
Also in the consolidation, the company is moving its DFS retail distribution operations from its facility in Columbus, OH, to its site in Groveport, a suburb of Columbus. The company expects that most of the associates working in retail distribution at the Columbus site will transfer to the Groveport facility when this aspect of the consolidation is completed in September. However, as a result of the decision, about 40 associates in support positions at DFS will be laid off in September.
