Laid off from Essendant.

What Essendant layoffs have meant for employees

At the two Illinois sites, the notices said employees wouldn't have bumping rights into other positions, the Lake and McHenry County Scanner reported, and Ohio's copy of the 2025 Twinsburg notice carried the same line. At the Oaks distribution center in Upper Providence Township, a building Essendant had run for about 20 years on a lease through 2031, the company didn't plan to offer staff positions at other locations, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. That's a separate matter from bumping rights. If you're deciding whether to wait out a later Essendant date or take another job, the company's own warning that it expected to close, which the Chicago Tribune reported from the notices, belongs in that decision.

The Lincolnshire notice set terminations on or within 14 days after Oct. 3, and that date didn't hold for everyone. Illinois' Department of Labor opened an investigation after a complaint about layoffs, chiefly at headquarters, that came five weeks earlier than planned, the Tribune reported. The notices had warned that "certain employees" might be told not to work for part of the period before Oct. 3, and the paper wrote that whether that clause covers the company's notice duty may end up with the courts. Losing a job weeks ahead of the date in the notice, after being told to plan around October, is a rotten way to go. A former employee has also gone to federal court with a WARN claim, and that suit names Sycamore Partners II LP as well as Essendant Co., Distribution Strategy Group reported, noting that its allegations haven't been adjudicated and that it's separate from the state's investigation. If your last day came before the date on your notice, it's worth keeping the Aug. 3 notice, which reached Illinois employees by hand delivery or mail, any later letter and your final pay records in one place.

Concentrating the network didn't steady it. Essendant had been shrinking for years, through 2023 and 2024 notices in Tennessee, Florida, Massachusetts and Maryland that our WARN tracker holds, before the 2025 overhaul pulled distribution into six hubs, as Distribution Strategy Group described it. Within a year, the 2026 notices reached every state that held one of those hubs, by DSG's August 13 tally. For anyone who stayed on through the 2025 consolidation, the next round arrived in the same states. If you're looking up a filing, the tracker carries Essendant's under Essendant, Essendant Co., Essendant Company, Essendant Inc. and Essendant Management Services, with the oldest under United Stationers.

Illinois holds 644 of the 1,278 jobs in the 2026 notices, and the state spells out when final pay is due and what it can include. The Illinois Department of Labor says final compensation, which can include the cash value of earned vacation, is due by the next regularly scheduled payday, and that a claim for unpaid final pay has to be filed within a year of when it was due. Its claim covers work performed in Illinois, which matters for any of the 310 remote employees who reported to Lincolnshire from another state. A final check marked as payment in full doesn't settle a dispute over more money, since the department says cashing a disputed paycheck leaves the rest of the claim standing, and a release an employer requires as a condition of payment is void. If you did your work in Illinois and your last check left out vacation you'd earned, the department's online wage claim is where that can go.

A sourced history of Essendant layoffs

• August 27, 2026, early dismissals on a video call

  Hundreds of employees, mostly at the Lincolnshire headquarters, were let go on a mass video call, sources told the Chicago Tribune. A letter the next day set Aug. 31 as their last day, with no severance pay or other benefits.

• August 2026, six-state WARN tally

  The notices named the Lincolnshire headquarters and sites in Carol Stream, Suwanee, Phoenixville, Irving, Sacramento, Perris and Phoenix, with many of the cuts set for Oct. 3, Distribution Strategy Group reported, while Essendant pursued potential sales and more capital to head off liquidation.

• October 2025, six hubs and a retreat from office products

  Essendant said it would run distribution from six hubs and step back from traditional office products, Distribution Strategy Group reported. Nov. 6 was set as the last ordering day at eight other sites, from Seattle to St. Louis.

• September 2025, notices from Ohio to California

  Essendant told Ohio it would close a Twinsburg facility with 99 jobs, citing "changes in and downsizing" of its business, in a letter Ohio posted. Same-day notices for California, Florida, North Carolina and Texas sites are in our WARN tracker.

• 2018, a plan for fewer distribution centers

  Sales declines had outpaced its ability to align costs, Essendant said in its 2017 annual report, and matching its network to sales volumes would leave it with fewer than the 64 U.S. distribution centers it then ran.

What to do if you're laid off from Essendant

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Essendant's biggest hubs: Illinois, Georgia, Pennsylvania, California. 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 Essendant's hub states run: Illinois, Georgia, Pennsylvania, California, 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.