By Stephen Guilfoyle / News Editor
Schumacher plant in Richburg Tuesday morning.

Layoffs are continuing at a local plant.
The sale of a home furnishing division at F. Schumacher and Co. was completed Jan. 3.

As many as 100 employees at Schumacher’s distribution plant were to lose their jobs, the company announced last year.

The company tried to license its name to a production company, but ended up selling its home furnishings divisions to Ellery Homestyles.

The sale took longer to complete than was first thought, said Ray Chevallier, executive vice president of the company.

The company is restructuring to place more emphasis on distribution, and less on manufacturing.

Rumors have circulated that the plant in Richburg is shutting down.

“Nope,” Chevallier said. “The layoffs were previously announced.”

Because the sale took longer than anticipated, the layoffs were delayed.

“That was good for some,” he said. But it just delayed what was already announced.

The layoffs have begun and will be phased in over the next few months, Chevallier said.

Tommy Davis, employee relations manager at the plant, told the paper last year the company wants to license out the rights to its home furnishing products.

With the de-emphasis on manufacturing, some employees will likely lose their jobs in that area. Davis said up to 100 of Schumacher’s 350 employees would lose their jobs.

“Our employees were told about this in October (2004),” Davis said.

Chevallier indicated that another 50 jobs are now being phased out by the sale.

The company is headquartered in New York, and has another plant in Delaware.

Some production was done at the Richburg plant, including some cutting and sewing on pillows, Chevallier said. But 80 percent of the work at the plant had always been in packaging and distribution.

The work force at the plant is experienced, he said, and those who remain will focus on the distribution work.

Chester County is in a four-way tie for the sixth worst jobless rate in the state, according to the latest release from the S.C. Employment Security Commission.

Chester County has a 10.4 percent unemployment rate, and is tied with Clarendon, Barnwell and Union counties. Marion County has the worst jobless rate in the state, with 13.6 percent.

The latest figures available are for December.

Those figures say that 1,650 Chester County residents eligible for benefits did not have a job, out of a work force of 15,880 laborers.

That is down from 1,660 unemployed workers in November out of a work force of 15,910..

The number of unemployed workers is up 70 from the same time the prior year, but the labor force is lower by 290. The rate was basically the same. In December 2004, 1,580 people eligible for benefits were unemployed out of a work force of 15,590.