SMITHFIELD – FGX International Holdings Ltd. plans to lay off more than half the workers at a California subsidiary it bought last year and consolidate their jobs in Rhode Island, The Tribune of San Luis Obispo, Calif., reported.
About 45 employees, or 70 percent of the work force, at San Luis Obispo-based Dioptics Medical Products will be laid off starting at the end of next year’s first quarter, the paper said.
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FGX paid $35 million last November to buy Dioptics, which makes sunglasses and accessories.
Roughly 20 “key employees” in Dioptics’ sales, marketing and development departments will remain in San Luis Obispo, a city located about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on California’s Pacific Coast. Warehouse and distribution jobs will be consolidated in Smithfield.
“We regret the need to reduce employment,” Alec Taylor, FGX International’s CEO, said in a statement. “We understand the disruptions that layoffs cause in people’s lives and in the community.”
FGX International Holdings Ltd. (Nasdaq: FGXI) is a designer and marketer of non-prescription eyewear – including reading glasses and sunglasses under the Anarchy, Angel, Foster Grant, Gargoyles, Magnivision, PolarEyes, SolarShield and other brands – and costume jewelry. FGX has about 375 full-time employees at its headquarters in Smithfield and offices in Bentonville, Ark.; New York City; San Luis Obispo, Calif; Toronto; Mexico City; Stoke-on-Trent in the United Kingdom; and Shenzhen, China. Additional information is available at www.fgxi.com.
