LITTLETON — P1 Logistics LLC, a last-mile logistics and delivery company operating out of Littleton, announced Aug. 24 that it was laying off 77 employees by October.
The layoffs were posted to the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, also known as WARN, on the Mass.gov website.
In his notice, owner Ari Polivy, of Hopkinton, said the Amazon delivery contractor is expected to permanently cease operations. No reason was given in the notice for the company’s closure, but three management employees and 74 delivery associates will be laid off by Oct. 24.
“Although it is possible that one or more employees will remain employed for a limited time (no more than 60 days) after the facility is closed to assist with administrative tasks related to the closing of the facility,” Polivy said in his letter to Antoine Jones, the acting rapid response manager for the MassHire Rapid Response office in Cambridge.
Polivy was not on site Tuesday, and he did not return a call or email requesting comment on the reason behind the mass layoff.
Layoffs are publicly announced when companies file a notice under WARN. The act requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide 60 days’ written notice before a plant closing or mass layoff, helping protect workers, their families and local communities.
According to the state’s corporation database, the company was registered in 2020 for the “operation of a motor vehicle delivery service for both business and consumer goods … .”
Polivy noted that employees are not represented by a union and there are no bumping rights.
“Each of these team members impacted will receive a written 60-day notice of position elimination,” he said in the notice.
It’s the latest layoffs in Littleton, a town of almost 11,000 residents.
In May, Dover Saddlery, a Massachusetts-based equestrian products company, announced 112 employee layoffs at its corporate headquarters and product warehouse at 525 Great Road. The 100,000-square-foot warehouse stocked more than 6,000 items for shipment to the company’s nearly 40 stores in 23 states.
Town Administrator James Duggan did not comment on the economic impact the closing of another business will have on the town.
On a busy Tuesday morning at the massive Taylor Street Amazon facility, dozens of P1 Logistics vans sat idle in the parking lot.
An Amazon delivery employee from Lowell, who declined to give his name, said he used to work for Polivy, and described him as a “good man.”
“I worked for him for two years,” the Amazon employee said. “Been with Amazon for 7-8 months. I’m trying to get some of [P1 Logistics employees] to transfer over.”
A driver, who said he was from Leominster, idled his P1 Logistics company van outside of Amazon’s entrance after picking up packages at the rear loading dock.
He said he’d been with the company for five years, but had already interviewed with another onsite last-mile carrier. The facility houses multiple last-mile carriers.
“It’s a busy job, never ending,” he said. “The hours are there.”
He called Polivy “a very generous man.”
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