Ample Hills Creamery is laying off all 101 of its employees, according to a notice filed with the New York State Department of Labor.
The notice, dated March 14, says the layoffs are for “economic” reasons. It comes in the wake of Ample Hills filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which the popular ice cream maker hopes will allow it to preserve and restructure the company.
A spokeswoman for Brooklyn-based Ample Hills said that all layoffs were temporary and unrelated to the bankruptcy filing. Rather, they are due to the company closing its stores amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to CEO Brian Smith.
“As soon as we get the all-clear from the city/state, we’ll be reopening,” he said. “We’re continuing to pay our full-time staff’s health benefits as well, during this temporary layoff.”
Ample Hills is just one of many companies across numerous industries that has been letting workers go because of the coronavirus pandemic and the severe restrictions imposed by governments to address it.
In an affidavit that Smith included with the bankruptcy filing, he mostly blamed a factory that the creamery built in Red Hook for its financial woes. The factory took much longer and cost much more to set up than the company had expected, according to the affidavit.