Berkline to lay off 250 in Tennessee

LIVINGSTON, Tenn. — Berkline has announced that it will lay off 250 employees by June 28 at an upholstery plant here that makes recliners.


About 140 remaining employees will produce recliner mechanisms for Berkline facilities in Morristown, Tenn., and Blue Mountain, Miss., said Dennis Carper, senior vice president of human resources.
Berkline employs about 800 in Morristown and 980 in Blue Mountain, Carper said.
Last fall, the company closed its Baldwin miss plant, laying off about 400 employees and consolidated manufacturing from its Ripley plant to the nearby Blue Mountain facility.
Carper said sales volume for recliners has declined and the company will consolidate production to Blue Mountain. The Livingston facility has been in operation since 1972 and in the past five years has had up to 500 employees, Carper said.
He also said Berkline is still in the process of completing a recapitalization plan that will give the company a new owner and more than $40 million in new financing. The company expects that deal to close in the next few days, he said.
The investment firm of Code Hennessy & Simmons has been the majority owner since March 2002, when Berkline and BenchCraft were spun off from LifeStyle Furnishings International.