US meal-kit delivery service Blue Apron is said to be planning to close a plant in New Jersey, with workers facing the potential loss of their jobs unless they accept a company offer to move to another facility in Linden 15 miles away.
Around 1,270 positions are being relocated to the factory, and more than half of the people affected have accepted the offer to move, a company spokeswoman told Bloomberg. Blue Apron COO and co-founder Matt Wadiak stepped down last week amid a restructuring of executives but will reportedly stay on at the firm. The shares have dived since they first went public in June.
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Blue Apron was set up in 2012 by Wadiak, Matt Salzberg and Ilia Papas. According to Fortune‘s 2016 “unicorn list”, the New York City-based business was valued at US$2bn.
In February, Blue Apron appointed Gary Hirshberg, the chairman and co-founder of US organic dairy business Stonyfield Farm, to its board. Blue Apron also gave a board seat to Tracy Britt Cool, the CEO of US kitchenware firm Pampered Chef, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
