Beachwood, Ohio-based cabinet maker MasterBrand will permanently close facilities in Iredell and Randolph counties, resulting in the loss of 274 jobs total. However, MasterBrand will expand its operations in Kinston.
MasterBrand will help relocate employees at the Statesville and Liberty locations to Kinston, or another of MasterBrand’s more than 20 manufacturing sites, if a job opening exists, according to a spokesman.
MasterBrand, the largest manufacturer of residential cabinets in North America, acquired the Statesville operation in July with its $520 million cash acquisition of Supreme Cabinetry Brands from GHK Capital Partners. The Dura Supreme Cabinetry on Meacham Boulevard employs 74 workers who make the “premium brand” Dura Supreme cabinets. That facility will close around Jan. 20.
MasterBrand’s facility known as Norcraft in Liberty employs about 200 workers who make another premium cabinet brand sold as Ultracraft. Layoffs at that facility will begin in May and end in September when the facility will close. MasterBrand acquired Norcraft Companies in 2015.
With the acquisition of Supreme Cabinetry, MasterBrand had three manufacturing sites within 200 miles of one another, says company spokesman Farand Pawlak.
About 500 people work at the Kinston facility, which currently makes a “semi-custom” brand of cabinets including Schrock, Diamond, Kemper, Thomasville and Mid Continent brands. It has room to add manufacturing lines of the two premium brands, Pawlak says. The additions of the two other lines will begin around March and be completed around September. The additions of the two lines will add workers in Kinston, although MasterBrand does not yet have specifics on how many.
“This is not a reflection on anybody at Liberty or Statesville. It’s just related to the underutilization of two facilities,” Pawlak says.
MasterBrand is offering affected employees transition assistance or severance pay and aid with the cost of benefits following employees’ terminations. MasterBrand employs more than 13,000 workers and has a network of more than 6,000 dealers. It had net sales of $2.7 billion last year, down from $3.3 billion in 2022. Key brands include Aristokraft, Bertch, Diamond, Dura Supreme, Homecrest, Kitchen Craft, Manta and Omega.
MasterBrand shares have sold for between $13.16 and $20.67 in the past year and closed Monday at $17.89. It has a market capitalization of almost $2.2 billion.
In November 2021, MasterBrand announced a $13.5 million expansion at its Kinston manufacturing site that was expected to create 464 jobs. The state offered almost $3.9 million in incentives for that deal. Three years later, MasterBrand has not received any of the grant money because it has yet to meet investment or job targets, according to the Department of Commerce.