Footwear manufacturer Wolverine Worldwide is closing its Rockford, Michigan, distribution center and moving all 50 jobs there to California.
After an employee at the plant reached out to Michigan’s 24 Hour News 8 after hearing about the move, a spokesperson for the company, which distributes such popular brands like Sperry, Merrell, Keds and Saucony, issued a statement confirming the move. The statement said that the decision to move is purely consumer related and that all 50 jobs should be relocated to the company’s new 720,000-square-foot distribution center in Beaumont, California, by early 2018.
“The decision to transition our Rockford distribution center business to the Beaumont location will allow us to better serve customers in the fast-evolving consumer and global marketplace,” said the spokesman. “The transition period will take place over the next few months, with an estimated completion taking place in the first quarter 2018.”
Questions arose concerning the decision to move, as many speculated it may have something to do with Wolverine’s troubles with water contamination issues in the area surrounding their dump sites. But the spokesperson quickly refuted those allegations.