Restaurant supply company to lay off nearly 200 workers

M&M Restaurant Supply Layoff Breakdown

Source: Keystone Foods letter to Ohio

SPRINGFIELD — M&M Restaurant Supply will lay off 171 workers beginning May 1, according to a notice sent to the state on March 1.

The Philadelphia-based Keystone Foods operation, which prints paper products for national restaurant chains McDonald’s and Chipotle, sought last year to move its work for 510 McDonald’s restaurants from Springfield to a new Fairfield location, keeping its work for 88 Chipotle restaurants in the area.

Spokeswoman Maureen Garrity said then that the impact to workers in Springfield was unclear, but the company hoped to find new opportunities for the Springfield location and keep all 205 workers employed.

“Keystone Foods has taken steps to grow our business by reorganizing some of our new and existing business,” Garrity said Tuesday afternoon.

“While this change will result in the short-term reduction of approximately 171 positions at our Springfield Distribution Center, it will also make available warehouse space and new business opportunities,” she said.

As business picks up, these laid off employees would be brought back, she said.

“In the meantime, we have successfully opened a distribution center in Fairfield and have provided positions to many of our employees from Springfield at that new location,” Garrity said.

Tom Franzen, economic development administrator for the city of Springfield, was not surprised. The company indicated last year they were going after new business and these possible moves were expected, according to Franzen.

“It seems the economy is picking up, so we remain hopeful that they’ll be successful in bringing new business to bring back some of those employees,” he said.

(Samantha Sommer contributed to this story)