Hallmark buyouts reach 15 percent in Lawrence

Accepting buyouts

Number of Hallmark Cards Inc. employees accepting job buyouts, and number of employees at U.S. sites with eligible employees:

• Lawrence production center: 107 of 700 employees, or 15.3 percent.

• Leavenworth production center, 52 of 400, or 13 percent.

• Topeka production center, 96 of 680, or 14.1 percent.

• Liberty, Mo., distribution center, 74 of 960, or 7.7 percent.

• Enfield, Conn., distribution center, 49 of 800, or 6.1 percent.

• Center, Texas, fixtures center, five of 79, or 6.3 percent.

• Metamore, Ill., fixtures center, eight of 157, or 5.1 percent.

• Kansas City, Mo., operations division, 34 of 675, or 5 percent.

• Total: 425 of 4,451, or 9.5 percent.

More than 100 employees of Hallmark Cards Inc. in Lawrence have agreed to accept buyouts and leave the company, as Hallmark seeks to reduce its U.S. workforce.

Since the company started offering buyouts in April, 107 of the 700 employees at the company’s Lawrence production center have accepted voluntary severance offers, said Julie O’Dell, a Hallmark spokeswoman. Some employees already have left, while others will work through June 30.

The buyouts represent 15.3 percent of employees at the plant at 101 McDonald Drive — a reduction rate about twice as high as the planned 6 percent to 8 percent cut that had been announced in April for Hallmark’s U.S. personal expressions business.

Employees also were offered buyouts at Hallmark’s production centers in Topeka and Leavenworth; two distribution centers; two fixture operations; plus some operations employees in Kansas City, Mo.

Among 4,451 employees at sites with workers eligible for buyouts, 425 accepted — a rate of about 9.5 percent.

“This was just one step of the workforce reduction initiative that we announced in April, O’Dell said Thursday. “All of our locations — in Lawrence and Topeka and everywhere else — are looking at more potential reductions that may occur between now and October. That’s part of the broad initiative announced back in April.”

In April, Hallmark had said that the total cuts would amount to 550 to 750 of its 9,200 full-time U.S. employees within six months, a move to address decreased consumer spending as the economy continues to struggle. At the time, the company expected 350 to 450 employees to take the buyouts, which were to include severance pay and transition assistance.

“We’re pleased we were able to offer the employees a chance to make the decisions on their own, and what they’d want to do going forward,” O’Dell said Thursday.

Hallmark also announced in April that the overall job cuts would include employees at corporate headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., where about 4,000 people work; and in field operations. Excluded from the April announcement were employees at Hallmark subsidiaries: Crown Center, Crayola, DaySpring, Sunrise Greetings and William Arthur.

In Lawrence, Hallmark employees make Shoebox and other greeting cards, plus ribbons, stickers and other products. The plant had 800 employees at this point last year, 900 in 2001 and 1,000 or more throughout much of the 1990s.

The Lawrence plant opened in 1958 and covers 650,000 square feet. In 2005, it produced 530 million cards.