OAKLAND, NJ-After 40 years, the perfume maker Estee Lauder Cos. will close its operations here, relocating its bottle-filling and packaging work to an existing facility in Long Island.
First word came to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, as per a federal law requiring companies to give 60 days' notice to local and state government when they cut a certain number of jobs.
The fragrance producer has had a plant in Oakland since the 1970s. It leases 148,000 square feet at 5 Thornton Road - and currently employs 116 people there. Eight-five workers will be laid off April 4, and 31 will be offered jobs at the plant in the Melville, Long Island, or another in Bristol, PA..
In a statement, Estee Lauder said the move allows it to maximize production efficiency through “increased synergies between the company's other Melville-based operations, such as skin care production and research & development.
Local officials were surprised, and worried. “I'm not pleased. I'm afraid of loss of jobs,” Mayor Linda Schwager told a reporter for The Record. “It's going to trickle down and hurt everybody, employees, residents, taxpayers, everybody is going to be affected.”
Only a couple of weeks ago, DRS Technologies said it will close its manufacturing facility here and relocate about 50 jobs to a Pennsylvania plant. The company will, however, maintain a separate office building in the community
Last November, 91 jobs were lost to Suffern, NY, when the furniture company Raymour & Flanigan closed its customer service center in Oakland. The furniture center facility was located in the McBride Corporate Park, close to Estee Lauder's operation.
The move won't immediately affect the property taxes on the land, said. But eventually, she added, if the building remains vacant the owner could file a tax appeal to have the taxes reduced.
Estee Lauder reported the planned departure to the “All eligible employees will be paid for all time worked up to and including the date of termination,” the company said in its filing. Some employees will be offered severance pay, Estee Lauder said.
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