Not a Golden Future for the Fleece. Something very serious is going on concerning the future of Brooks Brothers

Not a Golden Future for the Fleece

Something very serious is going on concerning the future of Brooks Brothers

“Brooks Brothers is closing all three of their domestic factories by the end of July. Southwick and Long Island City are still being negotiated with the unions. Garland is a non-union factory. That’s why the closure can be announced first. The plan is to close them all at this point unless something drastic happens.”

http://www.ivy-style.com/silence-of-the-lambs-brooks-to-close-all-three-us-factories-by-july.html

Brooks Brothers plans for hundreds of layoffs at Haverhill plant

By Gintautas Dumcius  – Digital Editor, Boston Business Journal

May 17, 2020, 7:55am EDT

https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2020/05/17/brooks-brothers-plans-layoffs-in-haverhill.html?ana=TRUEANTHEMTWT&csrc=6398&taid=5ec13c3e7d33a000011d40dd&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

The company pivoted to producing masks and gowns at the factory in March as the pandemic caused shutdowns of its retail locations and its customer base began to work from home. Now it's warning employees that it may be shutting it down altogether.

Brooks Brothers converts suit factory into medical supply producer

By Gintautas Dumcius  – Digital Editor, Boston Business Journal

Mar 31, 2020, 6:05am EDT

https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2020/03/31/brooks-brothers-converts-suit-factory-into-medical.html

Brooks Brothers, which bills itself as the oldest retailer in the U.S., is converting three factories, including one in Massachusetts, into a producer of medical supplies.

The Southwick suit factory in Haverhill is slated to join factories in New York and North Carolina in turning to the production of medical masks and gowns instead of ties, shirts and suits.

Health care workers have been clamoring for the medical supplies as they brace for a surge in COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks.

The Brooks Brothers facilities are expected to produce up to 150,000 masks a day, the company said, adding that executives have been in touch with federal and state officials, hospital systems and others about stopping the spread of the coronavirus.

The company said factory workers making the masks are returning to their workstations this week, after a two-week “precautionary self-quarantine.” The company plans to enforce federal guidelines for “social distancing” at all facilities.

Southwick served as a Brooks Brothers contractor before the company acquired it in 2008.

The company noted that Brooks Brothers has previously produced U.S. military uniforms, starting with the Civil War.

“We consider this a duty, and part of our DNA at Brooks Brothers,” said Claudio Del Vecchio, CEO, said in a statement.

Del Vecchio added that the New York–based company, which first launched in 1818, is “deeply grateful to the medical personnel at the frontlines who are fighting the pandemic, and we are honored to do our part and join our peers in retail to provide protective masks that our health care system critically needs.”

The company has 250 stores in North America. Retail locations in Massachusetts, which are all temporarily closed due to the pandemic, include stores on Boston’s Newbury Street and State Street, as well as in malls in Peabody and Wrentham.