Californian seafood chain temporily laying off 1,400 workers because of stay-at-home orders

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editorial staff

King’s Seafood Co is the parent company of King’s Fish House and Water Grill.

The OC Register reports that King’s Seafood Company, which has been in business since 1945, is laying off more than 1,400 hourly workers at restaurants in Southern California and San Jose.

Shutdowns in the most populated areas of the Sunshine State were triggered by an order announced Wednesday by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom last week.

Indoor restaurants are closed and the lockdown will be in place for at least two weeks and cover the Christmas holiday.

In a statement to the publication, King’s Seafood chief people officer Kelly Ellerman said: “I am sad to say, it is once again necessary to implement temporary layoffs to our hourly crewmembers until we are allowed to reopen”.

“Our estimated number of crewmembers effected is 1,436. I am hopeful that after the three weeks we will be able to reopen and get our crew back to work,” she added.

King’s Seafood Co, which owns King’s Fish House and Water Grill restaurants, sells salmon from wild sources. According to Dun & Bradstreet data, the 20-restaurant group seafood chain’s annual revenue in 2018 was USD 79 million.

The company has its own 15,000-square-foot fish distribution in industrial Santa Ana in California. It has been setting up pop-up markets to sell fresh seafood, which would normally be destined for its restaurants.

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