RALPHS/18 inches/1stjc/mark2nd
“So I guess you’ve heard the news. Hughes is becoming part of the Ralphs family. And you know what? For all of us who love our Hughes family market, it’s really great news, because all the Hughes people you’ve known for so long, all the smiles you get when you walk in the door, are still gonna’ be there. From our meat specialists to our produce experts and cashiers, the same friendly faces will be making sure that the same things you loved about your Hughes market yesterday will still be there tomorrow Come on in, say hi to some familiar faces and see for yourself. Now that Hughes is part of the Ralphs family, you can depend on us even more.”
BY ELIZABETH HAYES
Staff Reporter
Ralphs Grocery Co.’s radio ads promise that Hughes Family Market shoppers will see the “same friendly faces” at their stores despite the smaller chain’s acquisition by Ralphs last month.
“All the Hughes people you’ve known for so long, all the smiles you get when you walk in the door are still gonna be there,” the ads proclaim.
Well, not quite everybody. State Employment Development Department documents obtained by the Business Journal indicate that as a result of the consolidation, the company will lay off 80 Hughes workers at 57 stores throughout Southern California, and 100 more employees at the former Hughes headquarters in Irwindale.
“In the termination letter, the company advised most employees that their services were required through a specified transition period of four, six, eight or ten weeks,” according to a memo from EDD Deputy Director Robert L. Garcia to field office managers. “Employees who were not advised of a transition period were subject to immediate layoff effective March 11, 1998.”
Ralphs officials acknowledged 50 to 75 of the administrative layoffs in Irwindale. But they said the 80 workers at Hughes locations were offered other jobs, and opted instead for severance packages.
“A lot of people are taking early retirement or seeking other jobs,” said Ari Swiller, vice president of external affairs for Compton-based Ralphs. “These people were offered positions. They decided they didn’t want to move. They were not laid off.”
Of the 80 store workers, Swiller said 70 were non-union bakery specialists who were offered jobs in other departments, but opted to take severance pay. The other 10 were union employees who were also offered jobs and accepted the severance package.
Swiller defended the text of the radio ads, saying that since workers were offered transfers, they did not constitute pure layoffs.
“We still have the same friendly faces at our stores,” he said. “You’re talking about 5,000 people that came over.”
He said the bakery layoffs were made because Ralphs does not do from-scratch baking at its stores, as was done at Hughes. However, as Hughes stores convert to Ralphs over the next two months, Ralphs expects to have job openings, Swiller said.
The merger was part of a $4.8 billion transaction announced last November that would consolidate four supermarket operations, with Ralphs being acquired by Portland, Ore.-based Fred Meyer Inc.
Ralphs and the owner of Hughes agreed late last year to sell 19 of their 399 Southern California stores in an antitrust settlement to preserve supermarket competition and set the stage for the merger of the two chains. Buyers are still being lined up.
The 19 stores that will be sold are in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Three of the stores being sold are Hughes markets, while the remaining are Ralphs.
Before the merger, Ralphs had 342 stores in Southern California and Hughes had 57.
Ralphs Chairman Ron Burkle has said the merger would allow the chains to consolidate their warehouse and administrative operations, reducing combined operating costs by $55 million a year. He also said he expected to reassign the 700 employees at the 19 stores to be sold, but the consolidation of the headquarters and warehouse operations would eliminate about 100 jobs.
Charlie Cervantes, a representative of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, said layoffs were to be expected as part of the merger. He said the union would not get involved unless there were complaints over the way the layoffs are handled, such as over seniority issues.
