EAST AURORA, NY - One of the top employers in the Southtowns has announced plans to layoff as many as 50 employees from its workforce. Fisher-Price, which has its headquarters in East Aurora, says it will reduce staff over the next few months.
The toy manufacturer has had some struggles in recent years, laying off workers at its East Aurora location. This latest batch, according to Mattel, which owns Fisher-Price, will be laid off in phases over the next few months.
"An ongoing goal for Mattel and Fisher-Price is to drive continuous cost improvement and efficiency throughout our business. After careful review, we determined that outsourcing certain shared services functions will help achieve this goal," said Alex Clark of Mattel Inc.
Mainly research and product design is done at the East Aurora location, no manufacturing. Mattel says the finance department there will be impacted, and that jobs in accounts payable will be outsourced, but the company hasn't said where these jobs will go.
Mattel says the layoffs were approved to cut back on costs and that employees will be offered a severance package.
Nevertheless, the reductions are concerning to the East Aurora Chamber of Commerce.
"We just hope with this challenge that they can get past that and the company can continue to be a vital community business here," said Gary Grote, the executive director of the East Aurora Chamber of Commerce. "They've been a great asset to the community here for decades, being founded (here), there's a lot of pride here for them in the community."
The chamber emphasizes that there are other businesses in the village that are growing, such as the East Aurora Co-Op, and are strong.
In the past few years, Fisher-Price has made upgrades to its headquarters. A new phone system and office equipment were added. In exchange, back in 2014, Fisher-Price was approved for half-a-million dollars' worth of tax breaks in county and state sales tax. The Erie County IDA adds that the company has a three-year plan to fully realize the tax breaks.
While the company plans to reduce its workforce, a Mattel spokesperson tells 2 On Your Side that Fisher-Price does plan to hire at its East Aurora location later this year. Mattel says jobs will be added in tech support and customer service, but the company couldn't say whether this will provide a net job gain.
"It's fair to say that new positions in customer service and tech support will significantly offset any positions that are eliminated as a result of our decision to outsource certain finance functions," said Clark.
Mattel declined an on-camera interview.