ZEELAND, Mich. — MillerKnoll Inc. will permanently lay off 162 employees as the company prepares to close a furniture manufacturing plant in Sheboygan, Wis. 

The office furniture giant filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act closure notice with the state of Wisconsin on March 23. MillerKnoll said it will cease operations over the coming months at the plant located at 2218 Julson Court in Sheboygan, about 50 miles north of Milwaukee. 

The plant currently has 124 union and 38 non-union employees. Company officials anticipate the layoffs will begin between May 23 and June 5, and conclude no later than Sept. 29 of this year. The employees being permanently laid off are both hourly and salaried positions. The employees represented by unions belong to the United Steelworkers and the IUE CWA Local 800. 

Kris Marubio, vice president of communications at MillerKnoll, said in an emailed statement to Woodworking Network that the decision to close the plant was made to help the company "better align its resources." 

“We made the decision to consolidate some production and move health care from our Sheboygan facility into other MillerKnoll locations in the U.S. that have [the] capacity to absorb this work,” Marubio said. 

The company is currently “bargaining the closure effects” with labor unions in an attempt to reach an agreement. 

“We are enormously proud of our associates’ dedication and are committed to fairly supporting them,” Marubio said. 

The Sheboygan plant originally served as a facility for Nemschoff Inc., a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of health care furnishings. Herman Miller Inc. acquired Nemschoff in 2009, and purchased the Sheboygan plant in 2011 for $63 million.

MillerKnoll, formed in 2021 under the $1.8 billion merger of Herman Miller and Knoll Inc., is ranked #2 on FDMC 300 with $3.95 billion in sales.