RIPLEY, W.Va. - A wholesale food distribution center in Jackson County that employs more than 100 people will be closing, several employees said they were told Friday morning.

Some workers at the Ripley facility confirmed that they were told the plant was closing during a meeting with company President Daniel Staudt on Friday, after hearing rumors of a shutdown Thursday.

Nashville-based COI Foodservice Distribution would not comment Friday. Managers at the Jackson County center referred inquiries to the corporate headquarters.

Employees were reluctant to discuss the actual terms of the closing, but said they were being offered severance compensation.

"I think they were fair. He [Staudt] hates that it's affecting so many families," said Gary Gibeaut of Point Pleasant, who has worked at the center for 13 years. "With the bankruptcy, there's only so much they can do."

COI, which serves businesses such as Applebee's, Shoney's and Ryan's restaurants, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July to reorganize. In a filing with the bankruptcy court for the Middle District of Tennessee, COI cited rising fuel costs and the loss of several customers for their financial difficulties.

COI requested emergency consideration for the bankruptcy motions it filed on July 22, to avoid disruption or delay in paying its employees, according to a declaration filed by Lloyd Baldridge Jr., COI's vice president and chief financial officer.

The company employs more than 700 people through West Virginia's center, distribution facilities in Tifton, Ga., and Nashville, Tenn., and a manufacturing facility also in Nashville, where the corporate headquarters is located.

"The employees' skills and their knowledge and understanding of the debtor's infrastructure and operations, as well as their relationships with customers, vendors and other third parties, are essential to the debtor's continuing operations and to its ability to reorganize," Baldridge's declaration said.

Employees at the distribution center in Tifton, Ga., were informed last Friday that their facility would be closed by mid-October, according to local media reports.

Staudt declined to comment on the shutdown of the Ripley plant Friday afternoon, but said the company had filed required information in Tennessee and West Virginia under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The federal act requires employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of certain types of plant closings and mass layoffs. WARN Act filings in either state could not be confirmed Friday.

Staudt said the company would issue a statement early next week concerning the Ripley distribution center.

Reach Kellen Henry at khe...@wvgazette.com or 348-5179.

RIPLEY, W.Va. - A wholesale food distribution center in Jackson County that employs more than 100 people will be closing, several employees said they were told Friday morning.

Some workers at the Ripley facility confirmed that they were told the plant was closing during a meeting with company President Daniel Staudt on Friday, after hearing rumors of a shutdown Thursday.

Nashville-based COI Foodservice Distribution would not comment Friday. Managers at the Jackson County center referred inquiries to the corporate headquarters.

Employees were reluctant to discuss the actual terms of the closing, but said they were being offered severance compensation.

"I think they were fair. He [Staudt] hates that it's affecting so many families," said Gary Gibeaut of Point Pleasant, who has worked at the center for 13 years. "With the bankruptcy, there's only so much they can do."

COI, which serves businesses such as Applebee's, Shoney's and Ryan's restaurants, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July to reorganize. In a filing with the bankruptcy court for the Middle District of Tennessee, COI cited rising fuel costs and the loss of several customers for their financial difficulties.

COI requested emergency consideration for the bankruptcy motions it filed on July 22, to avoid disruption or delay in paying its employees, according to a declaration filed by Lloyd Baldridge Jr., COI's vice president and chief financial officer.

The company employs more than 700 people through West Virginia's center, distribution facilities in Tifton, Ga., and Nashville, Tenn., and a manufacturing facility also in Nashville, where the corporate headquarters is located.

"The employees' skills and their knowledge and understanding of the debtor's infrastructure and operations, as well as their relationships with customers, vendors and other third parties, are essential to the debtor's continuing operations and to its ability to reorganize," Baldridge's declaration said.

Employees at the distribution center in Tifton, Ga., were informed last Friday that their facility would be closed by mid-October, according to local media reports.

Staudt declined to comment on the shutdown of the Ripley plant Friday afternoon, but said the company had filed required information in Tennessee and West Virginia under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The federal act requires employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of certain types of plant closings and mass layoffs. WARN Act filings in either state could not be confirmed Friday.

Staudt said the company would issue a statement early next week concerning the Ripley distribution center.

Reach Kellen Henry at khe...@wvgazette.com or 348-5179.