Michigan’s Founders Brewing Company plans to furlough 163 employees of its taproom and retail stores in Detroit and Grand Rapids, according to a Worker Adjustment and Notice Retraining Notification Act (WARN) filing with the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity dated April 20.
Although the Grand Rapids-based craft brewery said it plans for the furlough of primarily hourly employees to be “temporary and less than six months in length,” the company acknowledged that it was unable to predict the true length of the furlough due to the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Greater advance notice of this mass layoff was not given because of the unforeseeable business circumstances provision in the WARN Act,” Founders director of human resources Audrey Strieter wrote in the letter. “This provision applies because the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan, the continuing restrictions on bar, restaurant, and other retail operations to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuing restrictions on Founders’ retail business was not reasonably foreseeable at the time notice was required under the WARN Act. Indeed, Founders hoped to avoid laying off employees at all and continued to provide full pay and benefits to all affected employees from the date it closed its Grand Rapids and Detroit retail operations through the date of the mass layoff.”
Founders proactively closed its two taprooms on Friday, March 13, three days before Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered the state’s bars and restaurants to shutter in an effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. After the closure, Founders continued to pay its staff members based on the average number of hours worked. During the furlough, the company will continue to cover 100% of the impacted employees’ contributions to insurance benefits.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has hit our business and industry hard,” Founders co-founder and CEO Mike Stevens said in a statement. “Founders has been very fortunate to have continued paying our retail teams since we closed our tap rooms on March 13. However, this week we announced the difficult decision to furlough those team members starting May 3 until we have better clarity on where we as a business, and society, go from here. We did not take this decision lightly and hope to bring back our furloughed staff as soon as possible.”
Founders joins a growing list of craft brewing companies that have either laid off or furloughed workers in the last month. Others include Deschutes Brewery, McMenamins, Russian River, Karl Strauss, Coronado Brewing, Surly Brewing, Great Lakes Brewing, Stone Brewing, The Lost Abbey and Monday Night Brewing, among many others.
In recent weeks, Fort Collins, Colorado-based Funkwerks laid off most of its staff, according to alt-weekly Westword. And Covington, Kentucky-based Braxton Brewing Co. furloughed half of its 70-person staff, the Cincinnati Business Courier reported.
According to an early April survey conducted by national trade group the Brewers Association, 65.7% of respondents said they had laid off staff.
Since mid-March, Founders has enacted several efforts to support the Michigan community. In early April, Founders formed a partnership with Grand Rapids-based Long Road Distillers to produce hand sanitizer by donating high ABV beer for distillation into a neutral spirit. More than 100 gallons of hand sanitizer is being produced weekly, with distribution primarily to healthcare workers, first responders, local hospitals and nursing homes.
The company also launched #CraftedinMI, a social media campaign to support members of Michigan’s arts community who have been affected by the on-premise shutdown.