Two Washington-based companies have announced layoffs that together will affect more than 400 workers. One is the global logistics company Expeditors International, based in Bellevue, and the other is the catering company Lavish Roots. Both rounds of job cuts are set to take effect in the coming weeks. The announcements add to a picture of corporate restructuring in the Puget Sound region.
Expeditors International issued a notice to workers that 230 employees will be laid off. The company cited workplace restructuring as the reason behind the decision. As a global logistics firm based in Bellevue, Expeditors is one of the larger corporate employers in the area. The notice formalized the scale of the cuts at 230 positions.
According to the notice, the impacted Expeditors workers are based across several cities in the state. They include employees in Bellevue, Federal Way, Lynnwood, Seattle and Airway Heights. The spread of locations means the cuts reach beyond a single office or site. The Expeditors layoffs are set to go into effect in August.
Separately, the Washington-based catering company Lavish Roots is also set to lay off more than 200 of its employees. The affected workers are based at the company's Redmond, Bellevue, Seattle and Berrien locations. Like the Expeditors cuts, these layoffs are scheduled to take effect in the same period. The Lavish Roots layoffs are due to go into effect on August 9.
FOX 13 reached out to Lavish Roots about the layoffs and received a response from the company. President Carly Duke said that Lavish Roots is having a positive transition. According to Duke, the company is working with the incoming vendor to transition the team. She said this would be done without a gap in service or a loss in income for the workers involved.
The framing offered by the two companies differs in tone. Expeditors described its move in terms of workplace restructuring, a standard explanation for corporate reorganizations. Lavish Roots, by contrast, pointed to a vendor transition and stressed continuity of service and income. Both, however, confirmed that a substantial number of jobs are being cut.
Taken together, the two sets of layoffs amount to more than 400 jobs across the region, all taking effect within the same stretch of August. The affected sites range from Bellevue and Seattle to smaller communities such as Airway Heights and Federal Way. For the workers involved, the notices set a clear timeline for when their roles will end. The coming weeks will show how the transitions described by the companies play out in practice.