Shade Store closing factory in northern Minnesota’s Blackduck, cutting 115 employees

The Shade Store is laying off 115 employees as it shuts its workroom in Blackduck, Minn.

Company officials told employees at a town hall meeting on Thursday morning. They also informed the state Department of Employment and Economic Development, as required by law.

Changing demographics in the area is the reason, a company spokesperson said. In 2021, there were 270 employees at the site but the company has had difficulty recruiting more skilled craftspeople to replace workers who have retired or left.

Blackduck, about four hours north of Minneapolis, has a population of 715 , down from 845 in 2020, according to 2023 census data. The residents’ median age skews higher than the population of surrounding Beltrami County as well.

Shade Store, a private company based in Port Chester, N.Y., makes and sells a variety of handcrafted premium window coverings through 120 showrooms across the country.

“It is a bittersweet time for the Shade Store — and for me —because we owe so much to Blackduck,“ Zach Gibbs, co-founder and chief executive of the Shade Store, said in an emailed statement.

None of the workers is represented by a union. They will be offered chances to relocate to the Shade Store’s other locations. The company will provide financial assistance to employees who choose to relocate.

The layoffs include eight employees who work in the company’s nearby quilt shop. A company official said they are hoping to find somebody within the community to take over the retail operations of the shop.

Workers not willing to relocate will be eligible for severance, depending on their tenure. The minimum severance will be eight weeks, with the average severance closer to 16 weeks.

The company also will extend health insurance benefits to enrolled employees, regardless of tenure, for six months after the closure.

The company has also been working with DEED’s rapid response team to ensure employees and the community have access to applicable resources.

The company has a total of 2,000 employees. It did not disclose annual revenue.

The Shade Store has three other manufacturing sites, one in South Hill, Va., and two in Pompano Beach, Fla.

The company believes it can expand in those areas because they are near larger population centers.

Production at the approximately 60,000-square-foot Blackduck location is expected to end April 30. The company plans to work with local officials to find an alternate use for the site.

Other northern Minnesota companies also have talked about the challenges of recruiting workers, especially younger ones. Marvin Windows, a larger company 100 miles north in Warroad, for example, created a program to recruit workers from Puerto Rico and Florida to move to Warroad and partnered with Northland Community and Technical College to create a mechatronics program to teach advanced manufacturing in Warroad.