Rhode Island-based United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) announced it will lay off 121 people from its Lincoln, RI office.
The company also said it will close both the Lincoln office and an additional office in Providence, RI. UNFI plans to consolidate both offices into a new headquarters in Providence.
As reported by The Providence Journal, the layoffs are effective beginning Jan. 24 with select employees remaining until June 20.
In 2025, UNFI said it will also close a distribution center in Fort Wayne, IN, which affects 156 employees.
This is the latest round of layoffs from UNFI. In June 2024, UNFI laid off 87 employees from its transportation department in Harrisburg, PA. In October 2024, UNFI laid off 277 employees from its billing, invoice and payroll department in Phoenix, AZ.
According to Supermarket News, the string of layoffs is part of a “three-year strategy to increase customer and supplier value, expand margin, generate free cash flow and reduce leverage.”
“At UNFI, we are always working to enhance the service we provide to our retailer and supplier partners. As part of this effort, we recently took steps to transfer a portion of our high volume and transactional billing, invoicing, and payroll tasks, as well as contact centers, to a third-party business services and technology services provider. We expect this change will allow us to serve our partners more efficiently and effectively over time. We are grateful to the UNFI associates affected by this change and remain focused on supporting them through this transition,” UNFI said in a statement.
For more information, visit www.unfi.com.