The company has several properties around Northern California, including a store at 2465 S. Main St. in Lakeport.
James Simmons, a spokesman for the company, said Piedmont Lumber closed its Calpella-based truss manufacturing facility – Calpella Lumber & Truss, located at 6301 N. State St. – on Wednesday.
“The word is, unfortunately, it had to be closed immediately,” he said.
Wednesday was the end of the year's first quarter, and the company determined that it was the appropriate time to make the transition, Simmons said.
He did not have information on the number of employees affected, and didn't know if any would be transferred to other Piedmont Lumber properties.
“I know employees were laid off effective today,” he said.
Simmons said the reason for the closure was, simply, the state of the economy.
“It's just a bad economic situation here in the state,” he said. “It just could not sustain operations.”
The economy, coupled with the impacts of the company's loss of its Walnut Creek store to a fire on March 13, made it “too difficult” to keep the Calpella facility open, Simmons said.
“The inventory there at Calpella has been moved to the Lakeport facility, which will remain open,” said Simmons.
Piedmont Lumber also is facing a lawsuit filed earlier this month by its lender, Umpqua Bank, which is seeking judicial foreclosure on several of its properties, including the Lakeport store, as Lake County News has reported.
On March 1, the same day that the bank filed the lawsuit, it also served notices of default against the Lakeport store, a securing property on two loans totaling more than $14.5 million.
In addition, the company is facing a federal lawsuit alleging it has failed to pay benefits to its union-represented workers.
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