“This mass layoff is expected to be permanent,” McAfee wrote. “The employment separations of employees affected by this mass layoff are expected to begin March 16, 2024, with all separations being completed by on or around August 3, 2024.”
The state calculates the number of resulting layoffs at 120.
In early 2020, L Brands sold its stake of the Victoria’s Secret brand for about $525 million. The Columbus company at the time was to retain the remaining 45% stake.
After the sale, L Brands — founded by Dayton-born Leslie Wexner — was to be left with its Bath & Body Works chain, and Victoria’s Secret was to become a private company.
By the summer of 2021, L Brands had divided into two companies — Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works.
For more than 25 years, L Brands operated a Kettering call center, which supported Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. The 5959 Bigger Road call center employed about 900 people in February 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic was felt domestically. (The number of employees at the center did fluctuate seasonally.)
Late last year, company representatives did not respond to questions from the Dayton Daily News about the status of the operation. A city of Kettering spokeswoman Wednesday said the company had indicated in 2022 that workers had been employed remotely since the pandemic.
The center’s more than 90,000 square feet of office space is being marketed online. A message seeking comment was left with Victoria’s Secret & Co.
Victoria’s Secret was a leading lingerie retailer for decades, but its business has been pressured by several factors, including increasingly sluggish sales. Columbus’ L Brands acquired the business in the early 1980s. In 2016, the company stopped distributing its glossy catalogs. Sales faltered after that.
Victoria’s Secret reported a net loss of $71 million for the third quarter of 2023, compared to net income of $24 million for the third quarter of 2022.
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