Doris Carter talks about Big Kmart closing after shopping at the store on Pemberton Square Boulevard Friday afternoon.(The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN)

[03/09/02]After 28 years as a chemical operator with Vicksburg Chemical, Leo Foster said that getting laid off Friday morning was “devastating.”

Vicksburg Chemical was one of three local industries that announced layoffs this week. A list released Friday morning by the Kmart corporation showed the Vicksburg store among the 284 the retailer will close. Exide Industries also announced the closing of its plant in Vicksburg Thursday.

All together, 249 people have or will lose their jobs as a result of the closings.

“I don’t know who will hire me now,” said Foster, 53, after being laid off from Vicksburg Chemical.

The parent company of Vicksburg Chemical, Cedar Chemical Corporation based in Memphis, filed Friday morning for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Several employees who asked not to be identified said the gates at the plant on Rifle Range Road where locked Friday morning before managers said that 65 people were losing their jobs.

Vicksburg Chemical manufactures different agricultural fertilizers, which are shipped all over the world. The plant site was one of the first large industries to come to Vicksburg in the 1960s.

Products have varied through the years and orders had dropped off in recent months because of competition from foreign plants, one employee said. Last month, about 8 people were also laid off from the plant.

“They told us the bank shut us down,” Foster said.

Guin Cantrell, one of those who lost his job last month, said that he didn’t know if he would be called back to work.

“They did mention there was a possibility, but they did not indicate that it was a strong possibility,” Cantrell said.

In addition to the plant in Vicksburg, offices in Memphis and a plant in West Helena, Ark., are being closed. Locally, employees were told to cash don’t simply deposit their last paychecks.

Separately, Kmart, the Detroit-based national retailer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. In the announcement Friday, six stores in Mississippi were listed for closing.

Along with Vicksburg, they are in Biloxi, Hattiesburg, Gautier, Laurel and Pascagoula. Eight store were also listed for closing in Louisiana.

Doris Carter said she has been a faithful Kmart shopper since the doors opened in 1991 and she is sad to hear it’s leaving.

“I shop here about two or three times a week,” the Vicksburg resident said outside the store Friday afternoon.

Leslie Kota, with Kmart corporate offices, said employees at the affected stores were informed of the closings Friday morning.

Kota said the courts must approve the closings March 20. “After that is done it will probably take about 60 to 90 days to liquidate and close the stores,” she said.

Carter said she had hoped the 87,000-square-foot store on Pemberton Boulevard would not be affected by the company’s troubles.

“Now I have to go and find another store to shop at and get used to it and I just hate that,” she said.

Another Kmart shopper, Chandra Smith, said she felt bad for the 70 employees at the store.

“This is just a bad thing because people need their jobs, especially with the way the economy is right now,” Smith said.

The city helped bring Kmart to Vicksburg by floating a $275,000 bond and using tax increment financing to help with the infrastructure development around the store.

In 1999, Kmart was transformed into a supermarket, and the name changed to Big Kmart in an effort to boost sales.

Smith said she hopes another retailer will fill the building once it becomes vacant.

“If they have to go then they do, but I hope that something else will take its place,” she said.

Jan Farmer said that she shops Kmart often and is sorry to see it go.

“I come here because I can get in and out quickly and I am going to miss that,” Farmer said. “I guess it is just one more business closing.”

Exide Technologies, formerly GNB Batteries, announced it will close its Vicksburg plant on May 10 as part of a restructuring of the company. The facility on the Vicksburg Harbor produces battery covers for automobile and marine batteries and employs 114.

Based in New Jersey, Exide also announced plans to close a Flowood plant and eliminate 122 positions there. The company’s operations in Mississippi will be moved to a plant in Lampeter, Pa.