Retailer's closings to cost 725 jobs in South Bend

Plans to close down the chain of A.J. Wright retail stores nationwide will cost the jobs of 725 workers for the company in Northern Indiana.

Documents filed with the state Department of Workforce Development and posted by the state online late Monday confirm that all of the workers in an A.J. Wright warehouse in South Bend will be let go as of Feb. 8.

The parent TJX Companies announced plans last week to shutter the 162 stores and two distribution centers of its A.J. Wright division effective by February.

Company officials said that 71 of those stores would remain closed permanently while 91 would be refitted and reopened as other TJX brands including TJMaxx, Marshalls or HomeGoods stores.

About 4,400 workers nationwide, including those at Wright distribution centers in South Bend and Fall River, Mass., will be laid off when the buildings are closed.

The Framingham, Mass.-based TJX Companies said the A.J. Wright division is being closed because it has been an inconsistent contributor to the company’s bottom line. Money invested in the chain can be shifted to more profitable stores and locations of the other divisions, company officials told Wall Street analysts last Friday.

The A.J. Wright retail store in Highland also will be closed, but the other 7 stores in Indiana, including four in the Indianapolis metro region, will be converted to other TJX stores.

In South Bend, TJX Companies owns the 540,000-square-foot building that opened in 2004 with great fanfare, a $41 million investment and $2.8 million in property tax abatements granted by the city. Four years remain on that 10-year tax break.

The company has already repaid $400,000 in penalties for missing projected targets for jobs to be created in the plant and a second building that was once proposed in South Bend.

In those days, TJX projected up to 1,000 stores for A.J. Wright, but it peaked at 162.

South Bend Mayor Stephen J. Luecke said this is the second large job loss suffered recently by the city. Robert Bosch Corp. will phase out its operations by 2011.

“They’re both terrible, Luecke said. “It’s the failure of retail that has caused the closing of this distribution center, and it’s a loss for the community and for families counting on those incomes.”

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