Laid off from Acuity Inc..

What Acuity Inc. layoffs have meant for employees

For anyone in an Acuity plant, the numbers worth knowing first describe where products get made. In fiscal 2026, Acuity's 10-K shows, 49% of finished goods were manufactured in Mexico and 17% in the United States. Plant closings are part of how that manufacturing mix came about, since its fiscal 2008 10-K said the closings since 2002 had increased production in international locations, primarily Mexico. Headcount is a separate snapshot. At August 31, 2026, about 8,200 of its people worked in Mexico and about 4,300 in the U.S.

Crawfordsville, Indiana, has been the destination for work from both Newark, Ohio, and Winona. The union's Electrical Worker said in 2009 that some Newark work would go there, and Inside Lighting reported in June 2026 that Winona's production would move primarily there. The affected jobs at those two plants weren't preserved when production stayed inside Acuity. At Newark, that union account said, 102 members were losing their jobs, and one member accepted $8 an hour above the regular wage rate to help set up a new line in Mezquital, Mexico. If you're offered premium pay to stay and help move a line, you can weigh it against what those same weeks could do for a job search.

An IBEW card hasn't meant the same thing at every Acuity plant. Minnesota's bulletin says Local 953 members at Winona have bumping rights under their contract, while Inside INdiana Business reported Acuity saying the workers in Local 481 at Fishers didn't. Closings have gone to the bargaining table too. Acuity's Cochran 8-K listed union bargaining among the things it was still finalizing when it announced that closing. If a contract covers your job, it's worth knowing whether it has bumping language, and how far that reaches, before a notice lands. If you're offered a package with no contract behind you, negotiating a severance agreement works differently, since you'd be doing it alone.

WARN notices show only part of Acuity's cuts. The company's filings carry severance and employee-related costs in fiscal 2025 and 2026 alike, and fiscal 2026's special charges involved labor cost reductions as well as the operating footprint. The plan announced after fiscal 2008 named salaried positions too. If you're salaried, a list of plant notices is a thin early warning for your kind of job.

The line to weigh came on the fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter earnings call. Asked about a $15 million special charge, finance chief Karen Holcom said Acuity closed one facility and consolidated into another, and that the company can rationalize its footprint because "we don't need the whole footprint anymore even as we grow." Inside Lighting put Acuity at $1.6 billion when it bought Winona Lighting in 2010 and at over $4 billion in revenue by the time the closing was announced, so growth hasn't settled what happens at a given plant, and a strong quarter isn't evidence about yours. A sale didn't keep the Sunoptics factory open either. The closing filing arrived alongside AES Industries' purchase announcement, Inside Lighting's 2022 report said, and Acuity had bought Sunoptics itself in 2011. Its fiscal 2026 report lists six U.S. plants, and Holcom's comment covered the footprint as a whole.

If you're among the Winona workers affected, the dates are personal. The notice sets a phased schedule, and the end-of-August wind-down Acuity gave Inside Lighting doesn't align precisely with the notice's final date. The bulletin also says its list of affected positions, which includes CNC programmers, maintenance technicians and manufacturing engineers, isn't limited to those titles, and it names a state rapid response specialist to lead the assessment of this closing. If you're affected and have your own separation date, you can compare it with Minnesota's unemployment rules.

A sourced history of Acuity Inc. layoffs

• June 2026, Winona, Minnesota plant closing notice

  Acuity's June 17 notice covered the closing and about 86 jobs, Minnesota's rapid response team said. Inside Lighting reported production moving primarily to Crawfordsville, Indiana.

• April 2025, unconfirmed reports of large layoffs

  Reports of significant layoffs surfaced on April 22, and multiple sources described the job cuts as large, suggesting a reorganization across parts of the business, Inside Lighting reported.

• October 2022, Sunoptics sale and Sacramento factory closing

  AES Industries agreed to acquire the Sunoptics business, and Acuity filed with California to permanently close the South Sacramento factory, with 98 layoffs, Inside Lighting reported. A spokesperson said Acuity was divesting and discontinuing its daylighting business.

• November 2020, Fishers, Indiana plant closing

  Acuity's notice, dated November 20 in our WARN tracker, put the closing at 150 layoffs, 34 of them in January and the rest running through April, Inside INdiana Business reported. The company said the affected workers, represented by IBEW Local 481, didn't have bumping rights.

• August 2018, Des Plaines, Illinois job cuts

  Acuity Brands Lighting's notice to Illinois covered 298 jobs in Des Plaines, according to our WARN tracker.

• August 2016, Edison, New Jersey job cuts

  An Acuity Brands Lighting notice covering 168 jobs in Edison took effect August 16, according to our WARN tracker.

• March 2012, Cochran, Georgia plant closing

  Acuity told employees on March 9 it planned to close the Cochran plant and move production to other North American facilities, expecting a charge of about $15 million, its Item 2.05 8-K says. Our WARN tracker lists 450 jobs at Cochran.

• October 2008, plan to close two plants, downsize one

  Acuity said its plan would directly impact about 800 personnel, manufacturing and salaried, in its fiscal 2008 10-K. The union's Electrical Worker said Newark, Ohio's assembly department would shut down, along with nonunion plants in Utica, Ohio and Austin, Texas. Our WARN tracker shows Austin notices from January 2009 and January 2011.

What to do if you're laid off from Acuity Inc.

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Acuity Inc.'s biggest hubs: Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Acuity Inc.'s hub states run: Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.