Barrette Outdoor Living's Salisbury manufacturing plant abruptly laid off 63 employees on Wednesday, cutting staff the same day the company filed official notice with the state. The move, logged as a permanent layoff in state records, hit production and support roles at the Rowan County facility about 45 miles north of Charlotte and has stirred questions about how much advance warning workers actually received.
State filing pins down timing and location
According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed on July 1, Barrette reported 63 affected positions at its Salisbury site and marked all of them as permanent cuts. The notice, received and posted the same day, identifies the facility as 745 Mid S Drive in Salisbury, as per the N.C. Department of Commerce.
Company blames revenue slump
In the WARN filing, the manufacturer cited "revenue decline and economic downturn" as the reasons for the layoffs, according to reporting by The Charlotte Observer. The Observer reports that Barrette did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the sudden cuts.
Recent ownership change and earlier cuts
Barrette became part of Oldcastle APG, a CRH company, in 2022. At the time of that acquisition, the company said Barrette operated roughly 10 manufacturing facilities and four distribution sites across North America, according to Barrette Outdoor Living.
The Salisbury layoffs follow other reductions in the past year. New York State Department of Labor records list a Buffalo closure in 2025, and New Jersey's WARN archive shows a 120-job layoff in Egg Harbor City last summer. Those filings are available from the New York State Department of Labor and the New Jersey WARN notice archive.
What WARN requires and what happens next
The federal WARN Act generally requires covered employers to give workers 60 days' notice before a mass layoff. Employers that fail to provide proper notice can be on the hook for back pay and benefits, according to guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor.
In North Carolina, WARN listings also trigger the state's Rapid Response team, which is tasked with offering transition support such as job search and retraining help to affected workers, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce.
Barrette's Salisbury plant did not publicly comment on the layoffs when the WARN filing was posted, The Charlotte Observer reports. Local workforce officials say Rapid Response services can assist displaced employees as they navigate unemployment benefits, job leads and potential retraining options.
