Sweden-based Electrolux will lay off 1,255 workers at the company’s Anderson plant starting in July, according to a WARN statement filed with the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW).
That’s the largest number of layoffs by a company in South Carolina since OS Restaurant Services let go 2,476 workers in 2020, during the height of the Covid pandemic.
“Twelve-hundred is horrible,” said Anderson County Manager Rusty Burns Thursday. “The plant is supposed to be down for six months while they retool. All of the employees will be eligible to be rehired, and that is the situation that we have right now.”
In April, Electrolux -- whose Anderson plant makes refrigerators -- announced a joint venture with China-based appliance maker Midea Group. That deal will shift production in Anderson to washers and dryers when it reopens at the end of the year or in 2027.
“I know that if they stay there until July, they get a severance package,” Burns said of the workers. “I know that for a fact. And I don't know if that severance package will last for six months, but we have a whole lot of companies that are hiring right now, eager for employees.”
In a letter to employees, Electrolux outlined its intended separation pay schedule -- four weeks of pay for employees who’ve worked for the company for less than four years, to a week’s pay for every year worked for employees who’ve been with the company for 10-plus years, up to 26 weeks (or six months). Employees who’ve received benefits will also get a week of continued coverage for each week of separation pay received.
Electrolux did not respond to a request for comment, but the company did send a statement to the Anderson Observer in April, saying: “the Anderson site will be transformed into a laundry facility, creating 1,200 skilled manufacturing jobs and indirectly creating 1,800 additional jobs in the community, contributing nearly $3 billion in economic benefits for the state of South Carolina.”
According to DEW, manufacturing employment in Anderson County is expected to grow through 2032. A 2022 report by DEW projects half-percent growth per year for a decade in the sector. With construction and agriculture, manufacturing is among the smallest-growing sectors DEW projects will grow.
Burns says Anderson County has been working with Electrolux to find a way to save the company amid intense international competition in the appliance space. He said the county also helped Electrolux through its merger hearings that needed to be approved by the federal government.
The deal was approved in April to give Electrolux 55% share of the operation and Midea 45%.
Burns said Electrolux will retain about 100 workers through what is to be the transition.
Electrolux has been operating in Anderson since 1988. It is, according to the Anderson Observer, considered a cornerstone of the county’s industrial employer base.
