Wahl Clipper cuts 48 jobs in Sterling, cites post-pandemic sales dip

STERLING – A post-pandemic slowdown in retail demand prompted Wahl Clipper Corp. to eliminate 48 jobs at the Sterling plant Wednesday, a spokesman said.

No more of the company’s remaining 1,000 or so jobs at the Sterling plant are slated to be cut, Marc Geil, Wahl’s global director of culture and employee experience, said Thursday.

The positions ranged across the board, from office to production, from salaried to hourly, Geil said.

With the nationwide closure of salons and barbershops, thanks to COVID-19 restrictions, sales of home grooming products boomed.

“We hired so many people during the pandemic because our demand just skyrocketed,” Geil said. “Retailers just bought and bought and bought.

“Now that we’re through the pandemic, business is normalizing,” and the demand from retailers, many of whom have leftover stock still in warehouses, has lessened.

As a result, the company “had to make some adjustments,” Geil said.

Those who were let go were offered severance packages, details of which he declined to provide, and the company will provide outplacement services and work with local HR managers to help them find new jobs.

“We want to do everything we can to help our employees find their next opportunity.”

A video of CEO Brian Wahl explaining the decision was sent to employees Thursday, and Wahl will hold a town hall with workers next Thursday, Geil added.

The move came after employees were asked to take voluntary furloughs, starting in October and running through December, but “there is no connection between the furloughs and what happened yesterday,” he said.

Also, the company typically closes between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, and so far that still is the plan this year; no decision on whether to close for a longer period of time has been made, he said.

Rumors – that the plant might close up shop and move operations overseas, or close its consumer division – spring up often but are not true, Geil said.

“We have such a strong made-in-America brand.

“We are, in our emerging markets around the world, focusing on our professional business first, but there is no way we would ever walk away from our consumer business.”

Wahl, which also has 3,200 employees outside the U.S., makes personal and professional clippers and other grooming products for salons, barbershops, everyday consumers and pets. It’s motto is “America’s Clipper company.”

It was founded in Sterling in 1911 By Leo J. Wahl, many family members still live here, and members of the fourth generation still work for the company.

It really bothers the family that people would think that they would just up and leave, Geil said.

“We are very much still here, we are very much not leaving the community, we are very much not selling the company.”