PVH closing distribution center in Yadkin County, North Carolina; 317 losing jobs

A distribution center for iconic clothing brands Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger will close at the end of the year, resulting in the loss of 317 jobs in the Yadkin County town of Jonesville.

PVH, which was known as Phillips-Van Heusen until 2011, says it will consolidate its distribution operations to the Atlanta area. Layoffs will begin Oct. 3 and end by Dec. 31, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification paperwork filed with the N.C. Department of Commerce.

PVH has had its distribution center in Jonesville for 32 years, says Bobby Todd, president of Yadkin County Economic Development. Helping recruit the company to Yadkin County was one of Todd’s first tasks when he started working with Yadkin County Economic Development, he says.

“Our unemployment rate is 3.1% right now so I think a lot of those folks won’t be unemployed for a long time,” Todd says. “But it’s still 317 jobs. It hurts.”

Todd says the New York City-based company notified him Wednesday by telephone that the layoffs were coming. The closing of the distribution center had been feared since 2020 when PVH announced it was closing 162 outlet stores.

“That was a big part of what was distributed from there,” Todd says of the outlet stores, “and that closure of the outlet stores was a pre-cursor to some big changes,” Todd says PVH had significantly more employees in Jonesville before the outlet store closures, but he could not put an exact number on how many more.

PVH’s property is visible from Interstate 77, off N.C. 67, and about 40 miles northwest of Winston-Salem. PVH operates out of an approximately 300,000-square-foot building located on 61 acres. PVH bought the property for $185,000 in May 1993. It now has a tax value of $23.5 million, according to Yadkin County tax records.

“We’re anxious to help market the building as soon as we know their plans,” Todd says.

Moving to Georgia will allow PVH to “take full advantage of the technical capabilities in our Georgia network and continue to respond to our consumers with speed,” according to a statement released by the company.

PVH has given employees a nine months notice and will continue to assist them in the transition, according to the company. “We would like to express our deepest appreciation and admiration for the Jonesville community,” according to a release from the company.

PVH began in 1881 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, by mending and selling shirts for coal miners. The company moved to New York City in 1890. The company  has more than 29,000 employees and more than 1,000 factories in 40 countries. The company reported $9.2 billion revenue in 2024.

PVH shares are down 22.6% in the past year. Shares have traded between $88.60 and $141.15 in the past year and opened at $94.29 on Friday. Shares were trading at $91.44, down 5% around 1:30 p.m. PVH has a market capitalization of $5.1 billion.

Note: PVH sold legacy brands Izod and Van Heusen several years ago and now only sells Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands. Also, a corrected version of this story now reflects that PVH products are produced in 1,000 factories.

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