Deluxe Corp. is laying off 145 employees in Georgia and Florida, closing one facility in each state, in an effort to trim costs.
"Both of those locations are closing because of an overall consolidation of our real estate footprint. We have looked internally at ways to realize efficiencies and cost savings in our real estate portfolio, consolidating work in certain geographic areas," said Cameron Potts, a spokesman for Deluxe.
Minneapolis-based Deluxe has evolved from its historic check-printing business into one that offers a more diversified mix of small-business services. Potts said there have not been significant layoffs in the Twin Cities.
The company is eliminating 87 positions in the Atlanta area and 58 jobs in the Orlando metro. Both facilities are remittance processing centers. The work done at those offices will move to "central locations," Potts said.
The Georgia location will close Jan. 31 and the Florida location will close Feb. 28.
"We gave notice now to give employees enough time to plan for their next steps," said Potts. "Locally, a handful of management positions were eliminated in the normal course of evaluating our overall needs, unrelated to the closure of those two locations. ... No other larger reorganization [is] underway."
The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) Act requires companies to give at least a 60-day notice in the event of plant closings, mass layoffs or significant job cuts. In its WARN letter to the state of Florida, Deluxe said that the facility closing was part of the company's effort to "reduce structural costs and reduce its overall real estate footprint."
In September 2020, the company announced plans to build a FinTech Innovation Center and Customer Experience Center in Sandy Springs, an Atlanta suburb. Deluxe was slated to spend more than $12.6 million on renovating and overhauling space in an existing building. An announcement from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's office at the time said Deluxe would create 709 new jobs in the Atlanta area.
Hiring in Atlanta is a multiyear process, Potts said, declining to disclose the number of jobs added so far.
Deluxe relocated its headquarters from suburban Shoreview to downtown Minneapolis in 2021.
In early August, the company reported solid second-quarter financials with revenue up 17.7% and net income up 82.6%.
According to information in the company's annual financial filing, it had 6,313 employees at the end of December. Of that number, 5,645 staffers are in the U.S.
The company also has operations in Canada, Europe and Australia.
