Jobs Moving from Rhode Island to West Virginia

MARTINSBURG - Word late last week that a New England mail order firm will shut down at the end of March is bad news for a small community in Rhode Island but good news for West Virginia.

"The decision to move out of Rhode Island was made in the best interest of what we need to do as a business," said Steven L. Gregg, chief marketing officer for Reston, Va.-based AB&C Group Inc.

Gregg spoke about the move in a phone interview Feb. 1, a day after The Paragon announced its facility would close operations in Westerly, R.I., laying off its work force of 119.

Westerly, which recorded a population of nearly 23,000 in the 2000 Census, had been hometo The Paragon since 1972.

Each summer for three decades, the business warehouse sale had drawn flocks of shoppers looking for discounted silver jewelry, kitchen goods and high-fashion items, according to a business story in the Feb. 1 edition of The Providence (RI) Journal.

BlueSky Brands Inc. owns both AB&C Group and Paragon, purchasing AB&C Group last year and Paragon the year before. BlueSky is owned by Reliant Equity Investors, a private equity firm in Chicago.

The AB&C Group's National Fulfillment Center in Martinsburg, which opened in mid-2006, employs 273 and already handles two other BlueSky catalogs, according to Gregg.

Gregg said he's unsure how many additional call center and warehouse jobs will be added at the 500,000-square-foot Martinsburg facility at 891 Auto Parts Place.

"We opened the Martinsburg facility with the idea we'd be expanding and bringing in other businesses," he said.

When the Martinsburg location opened, AB&C Group used the large new site to merge customer service centers it had operated in nearby Ranson and Winchester,Va.

In announcing plans for the Martinsburg facility. AB&C Group's CEO Mike Lutz predicted the new facility would boost the company's efficiency and lower costs.

"All AB&C clients will reap the rewards of our expanded capabilities in the new center, including new material-handling systems that will enable us to process more orders more quickly and state-of-the-art,order-processing and fulfillment systems," Lutz said.

"We'll also be able to run our business more efficiently by reducing costs associated with operating multiple facilities in the same region."

Gregg declined to disclose how much jobs at the Martinsburg location pay. Aside from the 150-employee call center in Martinsburg, AB&C also has a 125-employee call center in Orange, Va., that is tied to the Martinsburg operation.

According to information on AB&C Group's Web site, the 36-year-old company processes "millions of orders and responses each year for leading catalog companies, fundraisers and associations," including The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Golf Association, Holocaust Memorial Museum, National Geographic Society, National Rifle Association, The Heritage Foundation and other companies and organizations.

Gregg said he didn't know whether the Rhode Island workers being laid off from Paragon would be offered positions in Martinsburg.

According to The Providence Journal, Paragon's headquarters will remain open in North Kingstown, R.I., where 40 workers are employed.