111 jobs lost in Westbrook warehouse closure

WESTBROOK – Bindley Western Industries plans to close its drug distribution warehouse in March, resulting in a loss of 111 jobs.

The company had moved the warehouse operation from Portland to Westbrook after the City Council voted in 1998 to approve a tax break to build a new facility in the Five Star Industrial Park.

Bindley Western, which was purchased earlier this year by Ohio-based Cardinal Health, said in a letter to Mayor Donald Esty that the closure was due to the company’s need to move operations to other facilities.

All employees will be paid through March 15, according to the letter from Thomas Weakley, Bindley’s director of human resources, although jobs will be eliminated as early as March 1. “The terminations resulting from the closure are expected to be permanent and not temporary,” the letter said.

Some of the employees may be offered the chance to transfer to another facility, Weakley added.

The employees include 76 warehouse workers, along with office personnel, administrators, drivers and technicians.

The company never consulted with Westbrook officials before the decision, said Donald Mannett, the city’s director of economic development.

“We definitely don’t want to lose them, but there’s nothing we can do,” Mannett said. “I guess they made the decision in their corporate offices and there’s nothing we can do.”